The creature commonly weighs about three pounds, and its note resembles that of a toy-dog.

It is a species of marmot; it subsists on grass roots and other vegetable products; its flesh is delicate and, when fat, of good flavor.

The writer of these lines, when crossing the great plains, in early times, found the "prairie-dogs" excellent eating, but difficult to kill; they are expert at diving into their holes at the slightest signal of danger.
The following days they saw large herds of buffalo, and the copses of timber appeared to contain elk and deer, "just below Cedar Island," adds the journal, "on a hill to the south, is the backbone of a fish, forty-five feet long, tapering towards the tail, and in a perfect state of petrifaction, fragments of which were collected and sent to Washington." This was not a fish, but the fossil remains of a reptile of one of the earliest geological periods.

Here, too, the party saw immense herds of buffalo, thousands in number, some of which they killed for their meat and skins.

They also saw elk, deer, turkeys, grouse, beaver, and prairie-dogs.