ery neatly constructed: they consist of about
one hundred cabins, made of white buffalo hides, supported on poles
fifteen or twenty feet high; and, having a larger cabin in the centre,
for councils and for dances. These lodges may be taken to pieces, packed
up, and carried from place to place. The beasts of burden are dogs. Some
of these Indians had their heads shaved, and others had arrows stuck
through their flesh above and below the elbow: these were indications of
mourning.

On Friday the 28th of September, Captains Lewis and Clarke pursued their
voyage up the river; and on the ensuing day, they passed a spot where a
band of _Ricara Indians_ had had a village, about five years before: but
there were now no remains of it, except a mound which encircled the
town.

Beyond this, the country, on the north side of the river, presented an
extensive range of low prairie, covered with timber: on the south were
high and barren hills; but, afterwards, the land assumed the same
character as that on the opposite side. A great number of Indians were
discovered on the hills at a distance: they approached the river, and
proved to be _Tetons_, belonging to the band which the voyagers had just
left. In the course of this day the navigation was much impeded by logs
and sand-bars. The weather was now very cold. The voyagers next passed
the _Chayenne river_, which flowed from the south-west, and the mouth of
which was four hundred yards wide. On both sides of the Missouri, near
this river, are richly timbered lowlands, with naked hills behind them.
In this part of the country the hunters observed a great numbers of
goats, white bears, prairie-cocks or grouse; and a species of quadrupeds
described to resemble a small elk, but to have large, circular horns.

For many successive days Indians were observed on the shores; and, if
they had been more numerous, some of them seemed inclined to molest the
voyagers. On the sand-bars, which here very much obstructed the course
of the river, great number of geese, swans, brants, and ducks of
different kinds were seen.

On the 9th of October, the voyagers received visits from three chiefs of
the _Ricara Indians_; and, though the wind was violent, and the waves
ran very high, two or three squaws or females rowed off to them, in
little canoes, each made of a single buffalo-skin, stretched over a
frame of boughs, interwoven like a basket. These Indians did not use
spirituous liquors; and had even re