Sage-fowl and prairie-fowl, ducks of all sorts, swans, and wild cranes
were plentiful, while huge, flapping geese nested in the tops of the
cottonwood-trees.
[Illustration: Buffalo Hunted by Indians.]
Big game, such as buffalo, elk, antelope, whitetail and blacktail deer,
and big-horned sheep, was also abundant. It happened more than once that
the party was detained for an hour or more while a great herd of buffalo
ploughed their way down the bank of a river in a huge column.
Many of the animals in this region were very tame, for they had not
learned to fear men. Yet among them the explorers found some dangerous
enemies. One was the grizzly bear, and another the rattlesnake. But the
greatest scourges of all were the tiny, buzzing mosquitoes, which beset
them in great swarms.
The second autumn was almost upon them when they arrived at the headwaters
of the Missouri, and their hardest task was yet to be accomplished. Before
them rose the mountains. These, they knew, must be crossed before they
could hope to find any waterway to the coast. The boats in which they had
come thus far, now being useless, were left behind, and horses were
procured from a band of wandering Indians.
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