In the morning, very cold. Immediately to the right, around the headland, the river took a very sharp turn and was very narrow and shallow. When the sun came up, we saw a large number of prairie hens in the forest [and] flying back and forth across the river; also a bear in the hills. At eight o’clock we lit a fire on the right bank. The hunters went out. High grass and dry plants on the bank; the forest [had] clearings traversed by countless elk trails.

Morrin shot a female elk, one of two that he came across with their calves. We now had meat for several days. I went into this forest and found many prairie hens on high branches, but not one on the ground. It was too dry and the leaves rustled too much; one could not get close to them. When flying away they make a bleating sound almost like our [European] snipe, only much louder and stronger and not dropping at the end.

Dreidoppel saw small striped ground squirrels (Sciurus quadrivittatus Say) living in the ground and hollow tree trunks. When the game had been brought to the ship, some of it was cooked and our hungry animals were fed. There was nothing left behind; five men were loaded with meat. We sailed downriver; [there were] hills to our left with a substratum of gray sandstone; on top, grayish brown clay. Farther back, cone-shaped hills of [the] reddish fired clay used to make bricks were in front of us again. The hill chain was serrated with remarkable low, coneshaped hills. Ducks were swimming [near] the sandbar to the right. Half an hour later we saw in the willows to the right three game animals stepping out on the sandy surface. At this moment a wolf came to attack them, and they hurried back into the willows.

At ten o’clock, pleasantly warm weather; it is now Indian summer. In the forests the ash trees had many yellowish brown seeds. At twelve o’clock a wind rose, driving sand in the air and causing waves in the river.

We saw a beaver’s lodge to the right, below the edge of the bank. After an hour we reached a forest on the left, where a few game animals standing in the thicket watched us. While Morrin let the river carry the boat, he shot at the game; [it was] a bit far at a sharp angle; he probably did not hit and we did not put in to look.

When we reached the next turn of the river, on our right [we saw the] flat heights of the prairie with original cone-shaped hills. Their tops are brick-red clay, but below the clay a solid white layer was visible. They all seemed raised through fire; the red clay was the color of fired brick. The bank of the prairie at the river, in front of the heights, consisted of steep, 15- to 20-foot-high stripes of clay alternating with layers of sand. The elevations stretch on the left bank beyond the forest, and where the trees stop, the hills continue farther. [One sees] again a row of light-miniaceous-colored or brick-red tops in the centers of the elevations. Usually the red-fired brick earth forms [just the tip] of the hilltop. However, small, coneshaped formations are often formed completely from this clay. On the steep bank, covered with [driftwood], where the right [bank] of the river was covered with young cottonwoods, we again saw many beaver tracks. There were paths leading vertically into the water. [We saw] a beaver lodge that did not stand isolated but [appeared to be] formed only [of] a heap of twigs extending down into the water, as is usually the case. Soon another lodge, or [den], was seen, very flat. We went around a turn of the river to the right and faced almost head-on a strong wind blowing from the south 1/3 to the east.

To the left along a bank savagely destroyed by the river and below several pieces of driftwood, we saw a beaver lodge, then [another]. Many cottonwoods had been destroyed on the heights by beavers. To the left, where the river turned, we were protected against the wind, and the sun shone hot. We lay to for five minutes [near] the forest, and I collected seeds. To the left, opposite and centered in front of the young cottonwoods, there was a strip of young willows of a beautiful red color, between brick-red and crimson; these were the young shoots of the narrow-leafed willow (see herbarium). To the right in the forest, completely defoliated everywhere, stood the dark-crimson-red underbrush of Cornus or red willow (bois rouge). A bit farther [on], the river turned right again at the hill chain. The chain was quite remarkable there, with nothing but rounded-off, cone-shaped, low hilltops. In front of [the chain], and on the slopes of the higher hills everywhere, [there] was a large number of round, broad pyramids rising upward like vol-au-vents, layered and striped all around. Some had a few small hills above each other [that] seem to [have been] raised through fire. In general, they are pale whitish gray and brown, mostly with faint stripes or horizontal layers, like the Mauvaises-Terres in miniature. Some [look like] isolated, broad, square pyramids, regularly arranged.

Flats with forest and meadows [could be seen] in front of the hills; the river turned. The left bank had been savagely devastated and had collapsed. Magpies and crows flew in the forest. Farther on we reached the elevations to the right. Juniperus prostrata grew here in dark brown, greenish spots on the hills. Now and then we saw the airy summer quarters of the eagles (Aquila leucocephala). The kingfisher was missing entirely since Fort Union; on the other side of that fort we saw them frequently in September but not at all in summer. Prairie hens winged over our boat. Their flight is like that of most fowl, fast and ripping—they flap their wings a few times and then glide steadily through the air while keeping their wings in place. We reached the hill chain of the left bank again at another bend, but there it did not have as many cone-shaped apexes in front and [formed] a more equally shaped ridge. Before we arrived [at that place], [at] twenty minutes before past four o’clock, we put ashore on the right bank and cooked for the evening.

The bank was steep, covered above with a thinned-out cottonwood forest and below with rose bushes where innumerable tracks of game crossed, especially those of elk. I had never seen so many. We could not stalk, but [we] heard the game walking, and Morrin claimed to have seen a herd of at least 200 elk. I saw the four-striped ground squirrel and shot it down from a tree. In hollow tree trunks, I found the remains of rose hips or fruits, eaten by these cute little animals. Beauchamp caught one alive. However, it escaped from us during the night. It climbs and slides on trees as skillfully as all squirrels do, is very fast and lively, jerks its tail, and moves extremely fast. When it runs across the ground or driftwood, it holds its tail upright. In fall and winter, it lives in these forests, eating rose hips almost exclusively. In areas where there is no forest, it lives in holes in the ground, as in the Mauvaises-Terres and in many places along the Missouri River banks, especially more upriver, where the forest is [more sparse]. Below the bushes, crunched fruits are seen everywhere; from [these] the ground squirrel probably collects [its] winter stock.

Mr. Bodmer went past me outside, turned into the forest to the left, saw a deer, and walked around us again into the distance. We waited a long time for him, perhaps two hours, and then left the campfire, where we had been shooting. It turned night, and he did not come back. Finally, very late, we heard two shots upriver; soon two more. Now we surmised that he must be lost. We answered with a heavily loaded shot, whose fire he saw and started to yell. Dreidoppel and Hugron (l’Enfant) walked toward him and brought him back at eight o’clock in total darkness. He had followed the deer, lost the direction of the river, walked perhaps eight to ten miles, [and] got into terrible thorny thickets and a marsh. Finally, he saw a troop of twenty Indians on the prairie coming toward him. Thereupon he turned again toward the forest [and] shot six times, despite the proximity of the Indians, because he was in peril. Luckily he caught sight of the river from a hill at dusk and then worked himself [through the thickets] until he reached it. He was exhausted, overheated, and hungry. We gave him coffee and elk meat as nourishment. We sailed on only about 300 paces [farther], until [we were] opposite a sandbar, where we slept. The night was windy and cold. It froze; there was heavy hoarfrost.