Early, shortly after daybreak, we reached the Musselshell River and tied up at its lower tongue of land. I got out with Dreidoppel, and we went about 1 or 2 miles up along the right bank of this river. Last year Mr. Mitchell had seen a truly huge elk antler here, more than 5 feet high, lying on the ground, which I wanted to find. The river was now narrow and shallow. Its bank, a dense forest of cottonwood saplings, was filled everywhere with bison and elk bones. A buffalo path led up along the bank. Soon, along the bank lay a prairie, overgrown with sage (Artemisia) and thorn, which joined the hill chain. At this place, where the hill chain touches the river, the huge antler once lay. [It] was not to be found; the river had undoubtedly washed it away or covered it with drifting sand. Meanwhile, somewhat farther [on], a tall, steep clay wall formed the right riverbank, and here the same kinds of animal remains we had collected yesterday along the Missouri banks lay in profusion. We burdened ourselves with several interesting pieces.

From the Musselshell [River], which, as I mentioned, is regarded as the halfway point to Fort Union, we continued on and everywhere along [the] shore saw individual buffalo. In the timber, where on the way up we had fired in vain at many elk, a buffalo herd stood on the bank. From our boat, Morrin shot a big calf. It was dark brown with [a] whitish mouth (donkey’s mouth: both jaws have this color [at the snout]) and short horns just breaking out; [it had] four inguinal teats.

We started a fire, cut up the calf, and had breakfast. Around us in the forests we saw large flights of blackbirds (Quiscalus versicolor Vieill.). The wolves howled around us. Crows and common ravens in swarms flew and called out everywhere. The warm sun emerged, and we could expect a beautiful day. Our shooting and the odor of our meat had attracted numerous wolves; we saw twelve of these preda tors of varying size and color, one right after the other, approaching on the sandbar along the river. They all came running at a gallop, then pricked up their ears for a moment, saw us, and turned back somewhat, where, however, most of them sat or lay down and soon struck up a doleful concert, howling in diverse tones. Several of them were pure white, others somewhat gray on their backs; some [were] very fat and old, others young, small, and slender.

About nine o’clock we left this place; the weather was very pleasant. Many snags at various places along the bank gave us jolts, but our helmsman found the course very well. The woods, that is, the cottonwoods, were already very yellow in this region; [the] old trees remain green longer and still were now; the thickets of young shoots are always the first to turn yellow. A lone swallow was observed. On a promontory to the left, three chevreuils [deer] (Cervus virginianus) stood in the willows and watched us. One often sees magpies and the red-winged woodpecker along the bank: the latter in the forest, the former on the prairie. An hour later, three bull elk and a cow appeared on a sandbar in the river. I wanted to shoot; the unfavorable wind drove them away. One of the bulls had most impressive antlers. We saw buffalo everywhere: singly [and] in twos, threes, and fours; on the bank, in the river, on the sandbars, and on the bare prairie hills.

At ten o’clock the heat was already great. Farther on to the right, we saw a buffalo rolling in the forest; the dust flew; a wolf walked on the opposite sandbar. At 11:15 several lone, fortresslike mountain domes lay near us on the elevations to the right. On the right left bank, we saw, sitting on the steep edge of the prairie, a badger, which had probably swum through the river and wanted to dry itself. The American badger (Meles labradorius or americanus) has a beautifully marked head and longer ears than the European one; it was the first specimen of this kind that I obtained. Morrin shot it from the boat with the rifle, and we took it along. Scarcely 100 paces away from us, where the river turned, a wolf stood close to us. Ardea herodias stood motionless on the sandbar; magpies flew around close to the boat. A second wolf calmly lay down beside us on the sand; a third one joined us; one was more white, the other more gray.

Around the bend of the river, we again had fortresslike hills on the elevations of the right bank; [these] were all described on our upward voyage. Two buffalo crossed the river before us; an entire herd grazed on the hills to the right; among them on the sandbar stood five or six deer. The sight was very pretty as they went bounding away; they lifted up their scuts, which stand erect, and their long white hairs glistened brightly in the sun. At the next bend of the river, there was again a wolf standing on the sandbar; to the left, out of the woods along [the] shore, a buffalo herd fled at a gallop in serpentine lines up the hills. Several river bends farther on, we saw a bull elk with a cow. From the abundance of game everywhere in these regions, one could conclude that there were no Indians along the river.

At noon the heat was great, but on this journey I could not observe the thermometer well [easily]. The elevations that rose before us also bore a close resemblance to the Mauvaises-Terres [Badlands]. Buffalo appeared on a prairie to the right and in the forest to the left. To the right, a small herd of cows, calves, and bulls descended the steep bank to drink; they roared with a grunting in their throats like pigs, missed their path, and could not get back onto the bank. They approached our boat and for a long time swam very close to it, but we did not want to shoot them. On the sandbar opposite, a big bull elk moved before the willow thicket with fifteen elk; beyond it grazed a buffalo herd.

Somewhat farther away we halted at the left bank at the mouth of a creek to make a bed of cottonwood and willow branches for our bears in their crate. Below the mouth of [this] now nearly dry creek was a dense growth of cottonwood saplings, against which the bull elk had frequently butted. Mr. Bodmer had gone ahead across the prairie onto the island and had driven the elk out of the thickets of the island. Meanwhile we had navigated farther ahead, and the elk came running in front of us into the river; they all looked beautiful in their bright mating colors edged with black. When they saw us, they turned back. Bodmer wounded the bull, but we continued our journey after we had waited a long time for him. We reached the bend of the river with rugged, eroded banks where, on the voyage upriver with the keelboat (on [——]), we had shot swallows. A wolf walked to the right along the hills.

At six o’clock we found ourselves in the high, clay mountains that bear such a close resemblance to the Mauvaises-Terres [Badlands]. The white castles farthest upstream were already close before us. The sun had set, and coolness had taken the place of the day’s heat. A solemn stillness prevailed in the vast, wild world of nature all around us; not a breath of air stirred; only the river produced some sounds; buffalo grazed undisturbed on the prairie before the mountains. Our oars lay still, [and] no one spoke, [so as] not to betray our presence to hostile Indians. Even our bears had been quiet since a bed had been made for them; it was as though they were sharing in [our] impressions of calm in nature, so conducive to serious contemplation. Today we had not seen by far as many buffalo as yesterday; on the other hand, we had counted more than twenty wolves, almost all of which appeared within rifle range on the bank. Until ten o’clock we continued navigating by the brightest moonlight; the evening was incomparably beautiful. The gleam of the river water was strong. We often tried to land along the right bank, but the bank was soft under the steep mountains, and for a long time we could not approach; unfortunately, we had sailed past the beautiful white castles during the night. The night was still; not an animal was to be heard; nor was there any forest in the vicinity.