and their forlorn shelter echoed with the sound of gayety.

The next day they resumed their labours, and by the sixth of the month
the cabin was complete. They soon killed abundance of buffalo, and
again laid in a stock of winter provisions.

The party was more fortunate in this its second cantonment.
The winter passed away without any Indian visitors; and the game
continued to be plentiful in the neighbourhood. They felled two large
trees, and shaped them into canoes, and, as the spring opened, and
a thaw of several days 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 sandbars, 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 last
they had to abandon the attempt, and to resume their journey on foot,
aided by their faithful old packhorse, which had recruited strength
during the winter.

The weather delayed them for several 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 with the early verdure of spring, and plentifully stocked
with game. Still, when obliged to bivouac on its bare surface,
without any covering, by a scanty fire of buffalo-chips, they found