She does not, however, show any
distress at these recollections, nor any joy at the prospect of being
restored to her country; for she seems to possess the folly, or the
philosophy, of not suffering her feelings to extend beyond the anxiety
of having plenty to eat and a few trinkets to wear.
"This morning the hunters brought in some fat deer of the long-tailed
red kind, which are quite as large as those of the United States,
and are, indeed, the only kind we have found at this place. There are
numbers of the sand-hill cranes feeding in the meadows: we caught a
young one of the same color as the red deer, which, though it had nearly
attained its full growth, could not fly; it is very fierce, and strikes
a severe blow with its beak. . . .
"Captain Lewis proceeded after dinner through an extensive low ground of
timber and meadow-land intermixed; but the bayous were so obstructed by
beaver-dams that, in order to avoid them, he directed his course toward
the high plain on the right. This he gained with some difficulty,
after wading up to his waist through the mud and water of a number
of beaver-dams. When he desired to rejoin the canoes he found the
underbrush so thick, and the river so crooked, that this, joined to the
difficulty of passing the beaver-dams, induced him to go on and endeavor
to intercept the river at some point where it might be more collected
into one channel, and approach nearer the high plain. He arrived at the
bank about sunset, having gone only six miles in a direct course from
the canoes; but he saw no traces of the men, nor did he receive any
answer to his shouts and the firing of his gun.
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