Early in the morning, beautiful, clear weather. We departed early, and at seven o’clock [we] came to the place where the buffalo killed yesterday lay on a smallprairie small prairie of the left bank behind a sparse cottonwood forest. We halted, walked there, [and] saw a big bull, one of whose horns had grown downward; several other young bulls had also been left lying completely unused. The meat of the remainder was now brought on board to be prepared for our breakfast. On a cottonwood at this spot along the bank stood a nest of a bald eagle, from which a nearly full-grown eaglet was shot. The old bird hovered around above us and emitted its alluring call.

At 7:30, 65°F [18.3°C]. Yesterday, when our hunters came to the place where the meat [now] lay, they had found about thirty buffalo moving about in a group. Each bull had its cow, and the young bulls moved around. The old bulls paw the ground with their forefeet, bellow, and fight each other. It is said [that], as a rule, one never sees a bull mating with a cow, but Deschamps claims he has seen this several times. It is exactly the same with red deer; here, too, this is seldom seen. The hunters, when they shoot buffalo in this country—on horseback or on foot—can kill many of these animals, one after the other, by their fast loading. They put the bullets in their mouths, pour the powder into the barrel, [and] immediately let a bullet fall from their mouths down onto [the powder, where it] immediately sticks firmly; they never use a wad on the powder or bullet.

After breakfast Mr. Mitchell and Saucier went hunting. They saw many buffalo and wounded one. Deschamps shot at a wolf. Those of us on board shot at young wild geese. At eleven o’clock they returned; Deschamps and Papin stayed out. The river flows for a long stretch of 8 or 10 miles straight ahead as far as [Big] Dry River. To the left, woods and willow thicket; to the right, prairie, with scattered old trees along the bank or woodlands. The sky clouded over and a considerable wind blew, which, however, was unfavorable. We now had the hill chain to the right: rather level on top, not particularly high, with small, not-very-deep hollows or ravines running down toward the bank, and with a pale, greenish gray color everywhere, since the vegetation is already very dry. But in all the gorges there are small green bushes that form dark patches on the hills. We now have the dry season here, which begins in the middle of July and lasts through the entire autumn. Then, almost all the creeks dry up; the entire prairie has a yellow, burnt appearance; and dust is stirred up even by a wolf running across it. From the dust one can recognize the [presence of] buffalo at a distance. In the fall the weather is very beautiful and clear, but the river is very low and navigation slow. In spring [there is] usually much rain and wind; the river [is] high [and] navigation is very good. Winter usually lasts five months and is very severe. Last year it was milder than anyone can recall: the Missouri was frozen over for scarcely three days; the snow did not last long either.

Toward noon we again saw before us a gentle hill chain, level on top; here the river afforded a distant view. At twelve o’clock, 79°F [26.1°C]. We navigated past thebare the bare hills of the left bank and saw before us the end of a prairie, steeply cut off at a right angle, behind which Big Dry River emptied. On this bank we saw a bison bull standing; [it] made the dust fly in clouds with its forefoot. Several of our men immediately pursued it; [they] climbed the high clay bank and, like the bison, disappeared from view. Soon afterward the men on the cordelle saw a bear in the prairie, which was completely overgrown with pale, bluish green Artemisia bushes. A number of hunters immediately jumped ashore.

We moved on, and between one and two o’clock [we] reached the mouth of the Big Dry River. [This] had a winter bed of several hundred paces into which [a] smaller one had been cut; [the] water was now scarcely more than a few feet across. The right bank of the creek was steep and [consisted of] gray clay; the whole region had a somewhat barren and desolate appearance. On the left bank, short willows. Here at the mouth of the [Big] Dry River, the Missouri made a very sharp bend, nearly backward, where the wind was favorable to us; we therefore sailed, and after three-quarters of an hour, we reached another bend to the left, where the sail had to be taken in. Our men shot at a flock of old and young wild geese with rifles and killed two of them. Somewhat farther ahead our hunters again returned; they had shot a bison bull and brought some meat. Dreidoppel had shot a Numenius longirostris and a young wild goose. On both sides of the river, willow thickets and forest, above which the gray-green hills peer forth, already assuming more distinctive shapes. The river turns right again and gives us [another] opportunity to sail. In the forest, [at the place] where the hunters came on board, they had found numerous fresh bear tracks; they saw how the bears had bent down the bushes and eaten off the berries. In such dense forests it is dangerous because of the large number of bears.

We had not sailed very far when a contrary wind arose, and we could not proceed very well. On a high hill before us, we saw several large elk standing; through the telescope [they] proved to be big bulls. We had just caught sight of them when, over on the other side on the sandy bank before the forest, a large, dark-colored bear appeared [and] walked slowly toward the shore. We immediately jumped into the dinghy to get to the other side, but the bear swam across the river. Now it was as good as dead; we hurried to reach it. In the middle of the river, it came to a sandbar and then began swimming again, but we, too, ran aground on the sandbar. Our men jumped into the water and pushed; finally we were afloat, but the bear had gained a lead and was close to shore. Mitchell, Deschamps, and Bodmer jumped ashore and ran downstream; the rest of us hurried on in the dinghy, because we assumed that the animal would turn around. But before we reached the spot, shots rang out, and three bullets, the last one in the head, cut the bear down; [it] was still in the water when the hunters approached it. It was not as big as the male killed recently [and] was very dark colored. We had to be content with cutting off its head and forepaws.

Because of the strong wind, the keelboat could not navigate; it remained on the right bank at the prairie. Scarcely had we taken this position when two large bison bulls, at the place where the bear had previously gone into the river, entered it and started to swim across. The boat was on the way at once, [but] on our banktoo bank too many men ran there, so that the animals turned around. The hunters on the other side had gotten their guns wet; they misfired, [and] the bulls escaped. A severe wind was blowing, yet some of our men slept on shore. A young man brought a live porcupine (Hystrix dorsata), which I bought. On our bank Bodmer also shot at a big buffalo bull. The evening [was] very dark [and] warm, with a strong wind.