Accordingly, on the 27th of December, they faced about, retraced their steps, and on the 30th, regained the part of the river in question.  Here the alluvial bottom was from one to two miles wide, and thickly covered with a forest of cotton-wood trees; while herds of buffalo were scattered about the neighboring prairie, several of which soon fell beneath their rifles.

They encamped on the margin of the river, in a grove where there were trees large enough for canoes.  Here they put up a shed for immediate shelter, and immediately proceeded to erect a hut.  New Year’s day dawned when, as yet, but one wall of their cabin was completed; the genial and jovial day, however, was not permitted to pass uncelebrated, even by this weatherbeaten crew of wanderers.  All work was suspended, except that of roasting and boiling.  The choicest of the buffalo meat, with tongues, and humps, and marrow-bones, were devoured in quantities that would astonish any one that has not lived among hunters or Indians; and as an extra regale, having no tobacco left, they cut up an old tobacco pouch, still redolent with the potent herb, and smoked it in honor of the day.  Thus for a time, in present revelry, however uncouth, they forgot all past troubles and all anxieties about the future, and their forlorn wigwam echoed to the sound of gayety.

The next day they resumed their labors, and by the 6th of the month it was complete.  They soon killed abundance of buffalo, and again laid in a stock of winter provisions.  The party were more fortunate in this, their second cantonment.  The winter passed away without any Indian visitors, and the game continued to be plenty in the neighborhood.  They felled two large trees, and shaped them into canoes; and, as the spring opened, and a thaw of several days’ continuance melted the ice in the river, they made every preparation for embarking.  On the 8th of March they launched forth in their canoes, but soon found that the river had not depth sufficient even for such slender barks.  It expanded into a wide but extremely shallow stream, with many sand-bars, and occasionally various channels.  They got one of their canoes a few miles down it, with extreme difficulty, sometimes wading and dragging it over the shoals; at length they had to abandon the attempt, and to resume their journey on foot, aided by their faithful old pack-horse, who had recruited strength during the repose of the winter.

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.