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found out they went through many hardships - poor food, nothing but what game they could kill and that without salt, so I thought better let well enough alone and just go to see the country.
It is very fertile and cultivated about eight hundred miles from the mouth. Sailing is very dangerous on account of the many sunken logs which are fast anchored to the bottom, reaching above water with the loose ends, sometimes below, so one cannot sail at night at all. The water is muddy -still I have never tasted better water. At first we could buy wood, but higher up we had to get out and cut it ourselves. But the work was easy, and besides the ship's crew there were eighty hunters.
The higher up we went the larger grew the prairies. Some were twenty miles long without bush, tree or hill. Some were covered with grass four to eight feet high; others had only a few inches, but there the ground was almost stone hard and had no loose mould like the hills. These prairies are literally covered with buffalo as far as the eye could reach, several thousands. They are generally shot from a horse, so we had on board for the purpose two horses belonging to the fur company.
In the evening when we had tied up, which was always done at the edge of the prairie where there were woods, one or two went hunting to kill what we needed for next day. The one who had the horse had a short gun loaded with bullets. He rode full gallop toward the buffaloes. As soon as they saw him they gathered together, stood a moment still, looking at him, and then were off as hard as they could go. But the horse was swifter and it was not long before the hunter was near enough to shoot. The horse is trained so that when the shot falls he will run to the opposite side, for if the buffalo could see the horse he would charge him; else he continues to run straight ahead until he falls. Then he is skinned and the hump and hams cut off. The rest is left for the wolves, who make short work of it. I have gone there an hour after a buffalo was killed, and every bit of the meat was gone. These wolves are not very large and are much afraid of men. They howl most awfully, and, together with the buffaloes, they make such a racket at night it is impossible to sleep until you get used to it. The first time I heard them was an evening I jumped ashore to make the ship fast. I got so frightened by the noise I dropped everything and jumped back on board again. By this time the ship had drifted down the river a long way.
It got colder and colder every day, and	we	had	ice overnight. At	last,
after sailing six weeks, we arrived almost	at	the	Yellowstone River.	The
country here is very rocky with great massive mountains as far as one can see. Two miles below the river at a small factory the ship went aground, so all the hunters went ashore. We tried our best to get loose and go up, as we should load with the hides of buffaloes and beavers. We did get over the first sand bank, but in the meanwhile the water fell so much that it was impossible to go down again. As there was no chance of the water rising until Spring it was resolved to leave eight men with the ship, and the rest, ten in all, were to go back to St. Louis in the boat.
I wanted to stay with the ship until Spring, but, as I was one of the best rowers, I was not allowed to. We put in a lot of grub and much ammunition and started to row the twenty-two hundred miles in	an	open	boat. We rowed slowly,
but the current ran six or seven miles, so we	got along pretty swiftly.	Every
night we tied up at the bank and made a big camp fire to sleep by, as it was very cold. We shot all the game we needed, mostly wild turkeys. We could not
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