October 19, 1833
In the night, heavy frost. The whole ground solidly frozen. Sky clear [with] bright sunshine. At seven thirty, 18°F [−7.8°C] (11°F [6.1°C] below the freezing point [sic]). The hunters left on horseback this morning to hunt buffalo. During breakfast it was very cold in the dining room. There was a fireplace, but no fire [was] lit. The journal of Fort McKenzie [records] 0°F [−17.8°C] [in] December 1831—at mealtime the water in the glasses froze solid [and] no one could drink it. Eating in America is not viewed as a time for pleasure and conversation, as it is in Europe, but apparently more as a necessary evil. Everyone hurries as much as they can. [They] talk little, swallow hastily, and run away wearing hats on their heads (when eating, they take off their hats, [but] when they enter [and leave], the [hats] are tightly on their heads).
At eleven o’clock, I went with Moncravie to the upper forest. We visited the tree graves of the Assiniboines. On one there were four warriors, among them a youth between thirteen and fifteen years [of age]. Moncravie climbed up, opened the hides and robes, and cut off the head, which I carried home in my hunting bag. The skin and hair were still partially attached, although he was dried up. I hope [the skull] will be featured in Blumenbach’s cabinet. The sun was shining now, bright and beautiful, even though it was cold at the same time and the wind had risen. At twelve o’clock, 35 1/4°F [1.8°C]. Deschamps’ children caught two small prairie foxes with snares in [their] burrows, one of them alive, the other torn apart. I bought one; [it was] very beautiful. The snares are put inside the burrow, and if they [ensnare] the animal, it is pulled out.
The afternoon remained cold, the same as the whole day. The snow did not melt in the shade. It is a cold region [with] a long winter. The journal of Fort Union mentions that the forests were still without anything green on 30 May 1832.
About evening several Assiniboines arrived, [as did] the mother of Mr. McKenzie’s Indian wife. Dreidoppel went out to hunt. He soon sent back a beautiful prairie fox. I saw another one in the vicinity of the fort; [it] was being chased by Mr. McKenzie’s large dog, Bull, but the dog could not catch up with him by far. In the daytime this small fox usually lay in the grassy corner where the [tipis] of the Assiniboines once stood. One could find him there almost every day. In the night he circled the fort looking for garbage. Dreidoppel came; [he] had shot two prairie foxes; one of them had jumped out of its burrow. Both foxes had so many fleas that one almost could not touch them. Dreidoppel saw a rabbit and a prairie hen. Several lodges of Assiniboines arrived toward evening. The sky [was] completely clear; the moon shone brightly at dusk. The night was getting cold.
Mr. Hamilton, with whom I spent the evenings, gave me a Dacota tobacco pouch made from the skin of an entirely white skunk—an interesting museum piece. This rare animal had been shot on the upper Cheyenne River. Its feet and tail were trimmed with red and green cloth and with glass beads—the eyes [were] two thick, blue glass beads.
