they approach within
reach of the rifle. So, too, they sometimes leave their flock to go
and look at the wolves, which crouch down, and, if the antelope is
frightened at first, repeat the same manoevre, 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 on foot, they are not good swimmers."

Later wayfarers across the plains were wont to beguile the antelope by
fastening a bright-colored handkerchief to a ramrod stuck in the ground.
The patient hunter was certain to be rewarded by the antelope coming
within range of his rifle; for, unless scared off by some interference,
the herd, after galloping around and around and much zigzagging, would
certainly seek to gratify their curiosity by gradually circling nearer
and nearer the strange object until a deadly shot or two sent havoc into
their ranks.

May came on cold and windy, and on the second of the month, the journal
records that snow fell to the depth of an inch, contrasting strangely
with the advanced vegetation.

"Our game to-day," proceeds the journal, "were deer, elk, and buffalo:
we also procured three beaver. They were here quite gentle, as they have
not been hunted; but when the hunters are in pursuit, they never leave
their huts during the day. This animal we esteem a great delicacy,
particularly the tail, which, when boiled, resembles in flavor the
fresh tongues and sounds of the codfish, and is generally so large as to
afford a plentiful meal for two men. One of the hunters, in passing near
an old Indian camp, found several yards of scarlet cloth suspended on
the bough of a tree, as a sacrifice to the deity, by the Assiniboins;
the custom of making these offerings being common among that people, as,
indeed, among all the Indians on the Missouri. The air was sharp this
evening; the water froze on the oars as we rowed."

The Assiniboin custom of sacrificing to their deity, or "great
medicine," the article which they most value themselves, is not by any
means peculiar to that tribe, nor to the Indian race.

An unusual number of porcupines were seen along here, and these
creatures were so free from wildness that they fed on, undisturbed,
while the explorers walked around and among them. The captains named
a bold and beautiful stream, which here entered the Missouri from the
north,--Porcupine River; but modern geography calls the wate