.
"In the evening the prairie took fire, either by accident or design, and burned with great fury, the whole plain being enveloped in flames.
So rapid was its progress that a man and a woman were burned to death before they could reach a place of safety; another man, with his wife and child, were much burned, and several other persons narrowly escaped destruction.

Among the rest, a boy of the half white breed escaped unhurt in the midst of the flames; his safety was ascribed to the great medicine spirit, who had preserved him on account of his being white.
But a much more natural cause was the presence of mind of his mother, who, seeing no hopes of carrying off her son, threw him on the ground, and, covering him with the fresh hide of a buffalo, escaped herself from the flames.

As soon as the fire had passed, she returned and found him untouched, the skin having prevented the flame from reaching the grass on which he lay." Next day, says the journal,-- "We were visited by two persons from the lower village: one, the Big White, the chief of the village; the other, the Chayenne, called the Big Man: they had been hunting, and did not return yesterday early enough to attend the council.

At their request we repeated part of our speech of yesterday, and put the medal round the neck of the chief.

Captain Clark took a pirogue and went up the river in search of a good wintering-place, and returned after going seven miles to the lower point of an island on the north side, about one mile in length.