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Show 228 LITTLE ROCKY MOUNTAIN RANGE----ELK ISLAND. 1 down near the burrows, and succeeded in killing six of these pretty animals, which are not so shy here as at other places, and we often got within thirty paces of them. Laden with our booty, and with the plants we had collected, we proceeded by the paths trodden by the buffaloes and elks through the thick willow copses, along the river, and were just in sight of the keel-boat, when, taking advantage of a favourable wind, it hoisted its sail, and left us no alternative but to follow it as quickly as we could, for three or four hours. Our fatiguing way led through a rough prairie, covered with hard grasses, with the epinette de prairie, helianthus, and prickly cactus, through thick skirts of the forest, with a thorny undergrowth of roses, gooseberries, and burs, where the fatigued and heated hunters refreshed themselves with the wild berries. We then had to climb over rough sand-stone hills, sometimes obliged to slide down, and at length reached the Missouri. On a wooded point of land, on the river side, we met with several of our hunters, but the whole booty of our fatiguing day's work consisted of a wild goose, an owl, and six prairie dogs. We had waded through many muddy, half-dry streams, and seen, in the blue distance, the range of the Little Rocky Mountains, about thirty miles off. After our return to the vessel, a herd of buffalo cows afforded another opportunity for a chase, and our hunters killed two of them and a bull, which furnished us with some meat. On the 1st of August, early, Mr. Mitchell sent two engages to Fort Me Kenzie, to give notice of our coming. We landed them on the south bank, laden with their arms and beds. We lay to at the wooded island, called, by Lewis and Clarke, Tea Island, in the channel on the north bank. As some elks had been seen, the hunters were landed on the island, and in a short time we heard firing in all directions, and in half an hour they had killed four elks, an elk fawn, and a young deer. On account of the number of animals found on this island, we agreed to change the foolish name of Tea Island to Elk Island. Mr. Mitchell, who had often travelled this way, always found the island full of elks, and once, of buffaloes. On this day he brought from it a large eagle and a rattlesnake; and Mr. Bodmer had taken, in the neighbouring prairie, a large Coluber eximus, above four feet in length. Near Lewis and Clarke's Bighorn Island, we again saw most singular summits on the hills. Entire rows of extraordinary forms joined each other (Plate XXXV., Fig. 20), and in the lateral valleys we had interesting glimpses of this remarkable scenery, as we were now approaching the most interesting part of the Mauvaises Terres. I have already described these mountains when speaking of the White Castles, but here they begin to be more continuous, with rough tops, isolated pillars, bearing flat slabs, or balls, resembling mountain-castles, fortresses, and the like, and they are more steep and naked at every step. Often one may plainly perceive hills or mountains that have evidently sunk into the marshy valley. Many strata inclined at an angle of 30° to 60°, and others perfectly horizontal. The course of the Missouri among these mountains is pretty straight, only narrow plains or prairies, covered with artemisia and the prickly bushes of the |