Volume 1

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62 SALT PITS—BUFFALOES.
than one of my canoes ran upon a stone, and would have
sunk, had we not been near to unload her instantly upon
the three others. We dragged her from the stone, and
hauled her ashore, but were so unlucky as
to' have mud up
to the waist where we unloaded. This is the second
time this canoe has foundered since leaving the Forks, so
she is now in a sad condition. I left them to repair her,
and went on with the Indians to the first salt pit, where we
camped.
One of the Indians soon arrived, having killed a fine fat
hart [male elk Cervus canadejisis], which he gave me. We
are now past the stones, and have a gentle current, deep
water, and an ugly, muddy beach ; but beautiful encampments
on the edge of the meadows which, at the turn of
almost every two or three points, come down to within a few
yards of the water's edge. I examined the salt pit, which
lies on the W. side, only a few yards from the river, where
it issues out of the ground ; but the mouth would require
to be dug away to form a kind of basin to dip out the
water. It was late before our damaged canoe joined us,
having broken twice since we left her. Fresh tracks of
moose, red deer, and bears are now so frequent that we
pay no attention to them ; and this afternoon we observed
the tracks of several bulls on the W. side, where they had
come down to drink. The Indians prepared their guns to
hunt buffalo to-morrow.
Aug. 26th. At sunrise we embarked, leaving the Indians
behind. At nine o'clock we found those whom we heard
fire yesterday ; they were waiting for me, with the flesh of
two fat cows, whose d^pouilles [layers of fat under the
skin] were about two inches thick. This was a fine sight
for my people, who, for some days past, had been anxiously
expecting to feast on vache grasse [fat cow beef]. We
embarked the meat, and proceeded ;
the Indians' canoes
were just coming in sight. At nine o'clock we passed the
great salt pit on the W. side ; it lies about 200 paces from
the water, at the edge of the plains, where it issues out of