taken to pieces, packed off; and carried with the nation wherever they go, by dogs which bear great burdens. The women are chiefly employed in dressing buffalo skins; they seem perfectly well disposed, but are addicted to stealing any thing which they can take without being observed. This nation, although it makes so many ravages among its neighbours, is badly supplied with guns. The water which they carry with them is contained chiefly in the paunches of deer and other animals, and they make use of wooden bowls. Some had their heads shaved, which we found was a species of mourning for relations. Another usage, on these occasions, is to run arrows through the flesh both above and below the elbow.

WONDER AT A NEGRO.

The object which appeared to as tonish the Indians most was Captain Clarke's servant York, a remarkable stout strong negro. They had never seen a being of that colour, and therefore flocked round him to examine the extraordinary monster. By way of amusement he told them that he had once been a wild animal, and caught and tamed by his master, and to convince them, showed them feats of strength, which, added to his looks, made him more terrible than we wished him to be.

NORTHERN LIGHTS.

Late at night we were awaked by the sergeant on guard to see the beautiful phenomenon called the northern light: along the northern sky was a large space occupied by a light of a a pale but brilliant white colour, which rising from the horizon extended itself to nearly twenty degrees above it. After glittering for some time its colours would be overcast, and almost obscured, but again it would burst out with renewed beauty; the uniform colour was pale light, but its shapes were various and fantastic: at times the sky was lined with light-coloured streaks rising perpendicularly from the horizon, and gradually expanding into a body of light, in which we could trace the floating columns, sometimes advancing, sometimes retreating and shaping into infinite forms, the space in which they moved. It all faded away before the morning.

INDIAN NATIONS.

The villages near which we are established are five in number, and are the residence of three distinct nations:

The

the Mandans, the Ahnahaways, and the Minnetarees. The history of the Mandans, as we received it from our interpreters and from the chiefs them. selves, and as it is attested by existing monuments, illustrates, more than that of any other nation, the unsteady movements and the tottering fortunes of the American nations. Within the recollection of living witnesses, the Mandans were settled forty years ago in nine villages, the ruins of which we passed about eighty miles below, and situated seven on the west and two on the east side of the Missouri. two, finding themselves wasting away before the small-pox and the Sioux, united into one village, and moved up the river opposite to the Ricaras. The same causes reduced the remaining seven to five villages, till at length they emigrated in a body to the Ricara nation, where they formed themselves into two villages, and joined those of their countrymen who had gone before them. In their new residence they were still insecure, and at length the three villages ascended the Missouri to their present position. The two who had emigrated together still settled in the two villages on the northwest side of the Missouri, while the single village took a position on the south-east side. In this situation they were found by those who visited them in 1796, since which the two villages have united into one.

THEIR RELIGIOUS SUPERSTITION.

The whole religion of the Mandans consists in the belief of one great spirit presiding over their destinies. This being must be in the nature of a good genius, since it is associated with the healing art, and the great spirit is synonymous with great medicine, a name also applied to every thing which the do not understand. Each individual selects for himself the particular object of his devotion, which is termed his medicine, and is either some invisible being or more commonly some animal, which thenceforward becomes his protector or his intercessor with the great spirit; to propitiate whom every attention is lavished, and every per sonal consideration is sacrificed. "I was lately owner of seventeen horses," said a Mandan to us one day, "but I have offered them all up to my medi cine, and am now poor." He had in reality taken all his wealth, his horses, into the plain, and turning them loose, committed them to the care of his me

dicine,

dicine, and abandoned them for ever. The horses, less religious, took care of themselves, and the pious votary travelled home on foot. Their belief in a future state is connected with this tradition of their origin: the whole nation resided in one large village under ground, near a subterraneous lake; a grape-vine extended its roots down to their habitation, and gave them a view of the light: some of the most adventurous climbed up the vine, and were delighted with the sight of the earth, which they found covered with buffaloe, and rich with every kind of fruits returning with the grapes they had gathered, their countrymen were so pleased with the taste of them that the whole nation resolved to leave their dull residence for the charms of the upper region: men, women, and children ascended by means of the vine; but when about half the nation had reached the surface of the earth, a corpulent woman who was clambering up the vine, broke it with her weight, and closed upon herself and the rest of the nation the light of the Sun. Those who were left on earth made a village below where we saw the nine villages; and when the Man. dans die they expect to return to the original seats of their forefathers; the good reaching the ancient village by means of the lake, which the burdens of the sins of the wicked will not ena ble them to cross.

THE WEATHER, LAT. 47. Dec 8th. The thermometer stood at twelve degrees below o, that is at forty-two degrees below the freezing point: the wind was from the northwest. Captain Lewis, with fifteen men, went out to hunt the buffaloe, great numbers of which darkened the prairies for a considerable distance: they did not return till after dark, having killed eight buffaloe and one deer. The hunt was, however, very fatiguing, as they were obliged to make a circuit at the distance of more than seven miles: the cold too, was so excessive, that the air was filled with icy particles resembling a fog, and the snow generally six or eight inches deep, and sometimes eighteen, in consequence of which two of the party were hurt by falls, and several had their feet frostbitten.

17th. The weather to-day was cold. er than any we had yet experienced, the thermometer at sun-rise being 45° MONTHLY MAe, No, 257.

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below, and about eight o'clock it fell to 74° below freezing point. 18th. The thermometer at sunrise was 320 below 0. The Indians had invited us yesterday to join their chace to-day, but the seven men whom we sent returned in consequence of the cold, which was so severe last night that we were obliged to have the sentia nel relieved every half hour. The north-west traders, however, left us on their return home.

19th. Notwithstanding the extreme cold, we observe the Indians at the village engaged out in the open air at a game which resembled billiards more than any thing we had seen, and which we are inclined to suspect may have been acquired by ancient intercourse with the French of Canada. From the first to the second chief's lodge, a distance of about fifty yards, was covered with timber, smoothed and joined so as to be as level as the floor of one of our houses, with a battery at the end to stop the rings: these rings were of clay-stone, and flat like the chequers for drafts, and the sticks were about four feet long, with two short pieces at one end in the form of a mace, so fixed that the whole will slide along the board. Two men fix themselves at one end, each provided with a stick, and one of them with a ring; they then run along the board, and about half way slide the sticks after the ring.

THE SIOUX INDIANS. Almost the whole of that vast tract of country comprised between the Mississippi, the Red River of Lake Winnepeg, the Saskaskawan, and the Missouri, is loosely occupied by a great nation whose primitive name is Darcota, but who are called Sioux by the French, Sues by the English. Their original seats were on the Mis sissippi, but they have gradually spread themselves abroad, and become subdivided into numerous tribes. Of these, what may be considered as the Darcotas, are the Mindawarcarton, or Minowakanton, known to the French by the name of the Gens du Lac, of People of the Lake. Their residence is on both sides of the Mississippi, near the falls of St. Anthony, and the probable number of their warriors about three hundred. Above them, on the river St. Peter's, is the Wahpa tone, a smaller band of nearly two hundred men; and still further up 3 G

the

the same river below Yellow-wood river are the Wahpatootas, or Gens de Feuilles, an inferior band of not more than one hundred men; while the sources of the St. Peter's are occupied by the Sisatoones, a band consisting of about two hundred warriors.

These bands rarely if ever approach the Missouri, which is occupied by their kinsmen the Yanktons and the Tetons. The Yanktons are of two tribes, those of the plains, or rather of the north, a wandering race of about five hundred men, who roam over the plains at the heads of the Jaques, the Sioux, and the Red river; and those of the south, who possess the country between the Jaques and Sioux rivers, and the Desmoines. But the bands of Sioux most known on the Missouri are the Tetons. The first who are met on ascending the Missouri, is the tribe called by the French, the Tetons of the Bois Brule, or Burntwood, who reside on both sides of the Missouri, about White and Teton rivers, and number two hundred warriors. Above them on the Missouri are the Teton Okandandas, a band of one hundred and fifty men, living below the Chayenne river, between which and the Wetarhoo river is a third band, called Teton Minnakenozzo, of nearly two hundred and fifty men; and below the Warreconne is the fourth and last tribe of Tetons of about three hundred men, and called Teton Saone. Northward of these, between the Assiniboin and the Missouri, are two bands of Assiniboins, one on Mouse river of about two hundred men, and called Assiniboin Menatopa; the other, residing on both sides of White river, called by the French Gens de Feuilles, and amounting to two hundred and fifty men. Beyond these a band of Assiniboins of four hundred and fifty men, and called the Big Devils, wander on the heads of Milk, Porcupine, and Martha's rivers; while still farther to the north are seen two bands of the same nation, one of five hundred and the other of two hundred, roving on the Saskaskawan. Those Assiniboins are recognised by a similarity of lan. guage, and by tradition as descendants or seceders from the Sioux; though often at war are still acknowledged as relations. The Sioux themselves, though scattered, meet annually on the Jaques, those on the Missouri Arading with those on the Mississippi.

SAND STORMS.

April 24th.-The wind blew so high during the whole day that we were unable to move; such indeed was its violence, that although we were sheltered by high timber, the waves wetted many articles in the boats: the hunters went out and returned with four deer, two elk, and some young wolves, of the small kind. The party are very much afflicted with sore eyes, which we presume are occasioned by the vast quantities of sand which are driven from the sandbars in such clouds, as often to hide from us the view of the opposite bank. The particles of this sand are so fine and light that it floats for miles in the air, like a column of thick smoke, and is so penetrating that nothing can be kept free from it, and we are compelled to eat, drink, and breathe it very copiously. To the same cause we attribute the dis order of one of our watches, although her cases are double and tight; since, without any defect in its works that we can discover, it will not run for more than a few minutes without stopping.

THE WHITE BEAR.

29th. We proceeded early with a moderate wind. Captain Lewis, who was on shore with one hunter, met about eight o'clock two white bears. Of the strength and ferocity of this animal the Indians had given us dreadful accounts: they never attack him but in parties of six or eight persons, and even then are often defeated with the loss of one or more of their num ber. Having no weapons but bows and arrows, and the bad guns with which the traders supply them, they are obliged to approach very near to the bear; and as no wound except through the head or heart is mortal, they frequently fall a sacrifice if they miss their aim. He rather attacks than avoids a man, and such is the terror which he has inspired, that the Indians who go in quest of him paint themselves, and perform all the superstitious rites customary when they make war on a neighbouring nation. Hitherto those we had seen did not appear desirous of encountering us, but although to a skilful rifleman the danger is very much diminished, yet the white bear is still a terrible animal. On approaching these two, both Cap. tain Lewis and the hunter fired, and each wounded a bear: one of them

made

made his escape; the other turned upon Captain Lewis and pursued him seventy or eighty yards, but being badly wounded, he could not run so fast as to prevent him from reloading his piece, which he again aimed at him, and a third shot from the hunter brought him to the ground. He was a male not quite full grown, and weighed about three hundred pounds. The legs are somewhat longer than those of the black bear, and the talons and tusks much larger and longer. The testicles are also placed much farther forward, and suspended in se, parate pouches from two to four inches asunder; while those of the black bear are situated back between the thighs, and in a single pouch like those of the dog. Its colour is a yellowish brown; the eyes small, black, and piercing. The front of the fore legs near the feet is usually black, and the fur is finer, thicker, and deeper than that of the black bear: add to which it is a more furious animal, and very remarkable for the wounds which it will bear without dying.

ANTELOPES.

The antelopes are yet lean, and the females are with young. This fleet and quick-sighted animal is generally the victim of its curiosity: when they first see the hunters, they run with great velocity; if he lies down on the ground and lifts up his arm, his hat, or his foot, the antelope returns on a light trot to look at the object, and sometimes goes and returns two or three times till it approaches within reach of the rifle: so too they sometimes leave their flock to go and look at the wolves, who crouch down, and, if the antelope be frightened at first, repeat the same manœuvre, and sometimes relieve each other till they decoy it from the party, when they seize it. But generally the wolves take them as they are crossing the rivers, for although swift of foot they are not good swimmers.

A NEW SPECIES OF GOOSE. Among the vast quantities of game around us, we distinguish a small species of goose, differing considerably from the common Canadian goose, its neck, head, and beak being much thicker, larger, and shorter in proportion to its size, which is nearly a third smaller; the noise too resembling more that of the brant, or of a young goose that has not yet fully acquired is note; in other respects, in colour,

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habits, and the number of feathers in the tail, the two species correspond. This species also associates in flocks with the large geese, but we have not seen it pair off with them. The white brant is about the size of the common brown brant, or two-thirds of the common goose, than which it is also six inches shorter from the extremity of the wings, though the beak, head, and neck are larger and stronger: the body and wings are of a beautiful pure white, except the black feathers of the first and second joints of the wings; the beak and legs are of a reddish or flesh-coloured white; the eye of a moderate size, the pupil of a deep sea green, encircled with a ring of yellowish brown; the tail consists of sixteen feathers equally long; the flesh is dark, and, as well as its note, differs but little from those of the common brant, whom in form and habits it resembles, and with whom it sometimes unites in a common flock: the white brant also associate by themselves in large flocks, but as they do not seem to be mated or paired off, it is doubtful whether they reside here during the summer for the purpose of rearing their young.

WOLVES.

The wolves are also very abundant, and are of two species. First, the small wolf or burrowing dog of the prairies, which are found in almost all the open plains. It is of an interme. diate size between the fox and dog, very delicately formed, feet and active. The ears are large, erect, and pointed; the head long and pointed, like that of the fox; the tail long and bushy; the hair and fur of a pale reddish brova colour, though much coarser than that of the fox; the eye of a deep sea-green colour, small and piercing; the talons rather longer than those of the wolf of the Atlantic States, which animal, as far as we can perceive, is not to be found on this side of the river Platte. These wolves usually associate in bands of ten or twelve, and are rarely if ever seen alone, not being able singly to attack a deer or antelope. They live and rear their young in burrows, which they fix near some pass or spot much frequented by game, and sally out in a body against any animal which they think they can overpower; but on the slightest alarm retreat to their burrows, making a noise exactly like that of a small dog.

The