n every respect to the burrowing
squirrel, except that it is only one third of its size. This may be the
animal whose works we have often seen in the plains and prairies; they
resemble the labours of the salamander in the sand hills of South
Carolina and Georgia, and like him, the animals rarely come above
ground; they consist of a little hillock of ten or twelve pounds of
loose ground which would seem to have been reversed from a pot, though
no aperture is seen through which it could have been thrown: on removing
gently the earth, you discover that the soil has been broken in a circle
of about an inch and a half diameter, where the ground is looser though
still no opening is perceptible. When we stopped for dinner the squaw
went out, and after penetrating with a sharp stick the holes of the
mice, near some drift wood, brought to us a quantity of wild artichokes,
which the mice collect and hoard in large numbers; the root is white, of
an ovate form, from one to three inches long, and generally of the size
of a man's finger, and two, four, and sometimes six roots are attached
to a single stalk. Its flavour as well as the stalk which issues from it
resemble those of the Jerusalem artichoke, except that the latter is
much larger. A large beaver was caught in a trap last night, and the
musquitoes begin to trouble us.

Wednesday 10. We again set off early with clear pleasant weather, and
halted about ten for breakfast, above a sandbank which was falling in,
and near a small willow island. On both sides of the Missouri, after
ascending the hills near the water, one fertile unbroken plain extends
itself as far as the eye can reach, without a solitary tree or shrub,
except in moist situations or in the steep declivities of hills where
they are sheltered from the ravages of fire. At the distance of twelve
miles we reached the lower point of a bluff on the south; which is in
some parts on fire and throws out quantities of smoke which has a strong
sulphurous smell, the coal and other appearances in the bluffs being
like those described yesterday: at one o'clock we overtook three
Frenchmen who left the fort a few days before us, in order to make the
first attempt on this river of hunting beaver, which they do by means of
traps: their efforts promise to be successful for they have already
caught twelve which are finer than any we have ever seen: they mean to
accompany us as far as the Yellowstone river in order to obtain our
protect