Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 6).djvu/114

 Friday 28th [i. e., 7th.] Continued under way as usual. All kind of intercourse between the leaders has ceased. In the evening, passed several old villages, said to be of the Arikara nation. The bottoms, or points, become wider, and the bluffs of a less disgusting appearance; there are but few clay hills, the country being generally covered with grass.

{130} Saturday 8th. Contrary wind to-day, though delightful weather. This morning, passed a large and handsome river, called the Chienne, S. W. side. It appears as large as the Cumberland or Tennessee. Saw at this place, the ruins of an old village and fortification. The country hereabouts is fine, and better wooded than any I have seen for the last three hundred miles. A tolerable settlement might be supported here. Game is very abundant—elk, deer, and buffaloe without number. We observed this evening, forty or fifty skin canoes, which had been left by some war party which had crossed here. Such is the wanton destruction of the buffaloe, that, I am informed, the Indians will kill them merely for the purpose of procuring their skins for these canoes.

Encamped a few miles above the Chienne river, in a beautiful bottom. No art can surpass the beauty of this spot; trees of different kinds, shrubs, plants, flowers, meadow, and upland, charmingly dispersed. What coolness and freshness breathes around! The river is bordered with cotton-wood, and a few elms, there is then an open space of thirty or forty paces, after which begins a delightful shrubbery {131} of small ash trees, the graisse de beouf, the gooseberry, currant, &c. forming a most delightful avenue. We all remark, that the singing of the birds is much sweeter than in the forests of the states. This is fancifully accounted for by Mr. Bradbury, from the effects of society; from the scantiness of woods, they are compelled to crowd on the same tree, and in this way impart improve