7th.. of
December Friday 1804—
a verry cold day wind from the NW.
the Big White Grand
Chief of the 1st Village, came and
informed us that a large
Drove of Buffalow was near and his people was
wating for us
to join them in a chase Capt. Lewis took
15 men & went out
joined the Indians, who were at the time he got up,
Killing
the Buffalow on Horseback with arrows which they done with
great dexterity,[32]
his party killed 10 Buffalow, five of which
we got to the fort by the assistance of a
horse in addition to
what the men Packed on their backs. one cow was
killed on
the ice after drawing her out of a vacancey in the ice in which
She had fallen, and Butchered her at the fort. those we did
not get in was taken by the indians under a
Custom which is
established amongst them i e. any person seeing a buffalow
lying without an arrow Sticking in him, or some purticular
mark
takes possession, many times (as I am told) a hunter
who kills maney
Buffalow in a chase only Gets a part of one,
all meat which is left out
all night falls to the
Wolves which
are in great
numbers, always in [the neighborhood of—
Ed.]
the Buffalows. the river Closed opposit the fort last night
1 1/2
inches thick, The Thermometer Stood this Morning at
1 d. below 0. three
men frost bit badly to day.
