Before daylight the next morning, they were up and on their way; they had nothing to detain them; no breakfast to prepare, and to linger was to perish.  They proceeded, however, but slowly, for all were faint and weak.  Here and there they passed the skulls and bones of buffaloes, which showed that these animals must have been hunted here during the past season; the sight of these bones served only to mock their misery.  After travelling about nine miles along the plain, they ascended a range of hills, and had scarcely gone two miles further, when, to their great joy, they discovered “an old run-down buffalo bull;” the laggard probably of some herd that had been hunted and harassed through the mountains.  They now all stretched themselves out to encompass and make sure of this solitary animal, for their lives depended upon their success.  After considerable trouble and infinite anxiety, they at length succeeded in killing him.  He was instantly flayed and cut up, and so ravenous was their hunger, that they devoured some of the flesh raw.  The residue they carried to a brook near by, where they encamped, lit a fire, and began to cook.

Mr. Stuart was fearful that in their famished state they would eat to excess and injure themselves.  He caused a soup to be made of some of the meat, and that each should take a quantity of it as a prelude to his supper.  This may have had a beneficial effect, for though they sat up the greater part of the night, cooking and cramming, no one suffered any inconvenience.

The next morning the feasting was resumed, and about midday, feeling somewhat recruited and refreshed, they set out on their journey with renovated spirits, shaping their course towards a mountain, the summit of which they saw towering in the east, and near to which they expected to find the head waters of the Missouri.

As they proceeded, they continued to see the skeletons of buffaloes scattered about the plain in every direction, which showed that there had been much hunting here by the Indians in the recent season.  Further on they crossed a large Indian trail forming a deep path, about fifteen days old, which went in a north direction.  They concluded it to have been made by some numerous band of Crows, who had hunted in this country for the greater part of the summer.

On the following day they forded a stream of considerable magnitude, with banks clothed with pine trees.  Among these they found the traces of a large Indian camp, which had evidently been the headquarters of a hunting expedition, from the great quantities of buffalo bones strewed about the neighborhood.  The camp had apparently been abandoned about a month.