AVhen near the Fort I saw a splendid male antelope
with the largest head of horns I ever saw. I
imshipped my oar, drew up my rifle, and missed
him, on which he very quietly walked on a pace or
two. BoucharvUle then handed me his rifle ; I
fired, but unfortunately the bullet striking just
above the animal's eye, so shattered the skull as to
make it unfit for my collection. We pulled into the
Fort in time for breakfast, welcomed by poor
Mr. Chardon, who was the bourgeois, or head
manager, of Fort Berthold. He had then been for
a long time ill with rheumatism, and on my return
to the Fort I found him worse. He seemed quite
to long for any one to talk to him and enliven the
weary hours that he passed on his sofa hardly able
to stir, so I occupied myseK in making some shot;
while I recounted my adventures to him, or laid
plans for future expeditions. In the evening I
generally joined the Indians, and sat with the old
men watching the women playing at ball, or the
young men at their different games. My horses had
arrived quite safely with Perey and the party of
Crow Indians; so that on the whole my hunting



SCAFFOLDINGS FOR THE DEAD. 261



expedition had turned out most prosperously. The
weather had now become warm, and the place was
decidedly unhealthy, owing to the vile habit these
Indians have of not burying their dead. Instead of
doing so, they place them aloft on a framework of
sticks ; so that, around the camp, you see these
scaffoldings in all directions, bearing bodies in
every stage of decomposition, and merely wrapped
each in an old buffalo robe. Near each is also
hung his mediciae, i. e. any little thing that during
his lifetime he may have deemed a preservative
against danger, or a charm against sickness, or
miraculous agent assisting him to find buffalo, &c. :
his pipe likewise, if he had one, is also laid beside
him, and a bow and arrows, which it is supposed he
will hereafter need when admitted to the hunting-
grounds of the blessed. 