The weather delayed them for a few days, having suddenly become more
rigorous than it had been at any time during the winter; but on the 20th
of March they were again on their journey.
In two days they arrived at the vast naked prairie, the wintry aspect of
which had caused them, in December, to pause and turn back. It was now
clothed in the early verdure of spring, and plentifully stocked with
game. Still, when obliged to bivouac on its bare surface, without any
shelter, and by a scanty fire of dry buffalo dung, they found the night
blasts piercing cold. On one occasion, a herd of buffalo straying near
their evening camp, they killed three of them merely for their hides,
wherewith to make a shelter for the night.
They continued on for upwards of a hundred miles; with vast prairies
extending before them as they advanced; sometimes diversified by
undulating hills, but destitute of trees. In one place they saw a
gang of sixty-five wild horses, but as to the buffaloes, they seemed
absolutely to cover the country. Wild geese abounded, and they passed
extensive swamps that were alive with innumerable flocks of water-fowl,
among which were a few swans, but an endless variety of ducks.
The river continued a winding course to the east-north-east, nearly a
mile in width, but too shallow to float even an empty canoe.
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