we resumed our
journey, with six or seven pounds of tallow for our whole stock of food.
This slender supply brought us through to the evening of the third day,
when we had for supper two ounces of tallow each.

On the 14th, in the morning, we killed a wild goose, and toward midday,
collected some flag-root and _choux-gras_, a wild herb, which we boiled
with the small game: we did not forget to throw into the pot the little
tallow we had left, and made a delicious repast. Toward the decline of
day, we had the good luck to kill a buffalo.

On the 15th, MM. Clarke and Decoigne having landed during our course, to
hunt, returned presently with the agreeable intelligence that they had
killed three buffaloes. We immediately encamped, and sent the greater
part of the men to cut up the meat and jerk it. This operation lasted
till the next evening, and we set forward again in the canoes on the
17th, with about six hundred pounds of meat half cured. The same evening
we perceived from our camp several herds of buffaloes, but did not give
chase, thinking we had enough meat to take us to the next post.

The river _Saskatchawine_ flows over a bed composed of sand and marl,
which contributes not a little to diminish the purity and transparency
of its waters, which, like those of the Missouri, are turbid and
whitish. Except for that it is one of the prettiest rivers in the world.
The banks are perfectly charming, and offer in many places a scene the
fairest, the most smiling, and the best diversified that can be seen or
imagined: hills in varied forms, crowned with superb groves; valleys
agreeably embrowned, at evening and morning, by the prolonged shadow of
the hills, and of the woods which adorn them; herds of light-limbed
antelopes, and heavy colossal buffalo--the former bounding along the
slopes of the hills, the latter trampling under their heavy feet the
verdure of the plains; all these champaign beauties reflected and
doubled as it were, by the waters of the river; the melodious and varied
song of a thousand birds, perched on the tree-tops; the refreshing
breath of the zephyrs; the serenity of the sky; the purity and salubrity
of the air; all, in a word, pours contentment and joy into the soul of
the enchanted spectator. It is above all in the morning, when the sun is
rising, and in the evening when he is setting, that the spectacle is
really ravishing. I could not detach my regards from that superb
picture, till the nascent ob