CHAPTER XVI.
Return of Spring .-- Appearance of Snakes .-- Great Flights of Wild Pigeons .-- Renewal of the Voyage .-- Night Encampments .-- Platte River .-- Ceremonials on Passing It .-- Signs of Indian War Parties .-- Magnificent Prospect at Papillion Creek .-- Desertion of Two Hunters .-- An Irruption Into the Camp of Indian Desperadoes .-- Village of the Omahas .-- Anecdotes of the Tribe .-- Feudal Wars of the Indians .-- Story of Blackbird, the Famous Omaha Chief.
THE weather continued rainy and ungenial for some days after Mr.Hunt's return to Nodowa; yet spring was rapidly advancing and vegetation was putting forth with all its early freshness and beauty.

The snakes began to recover from their torpor and crawl forth into day; and the neighborhood of the wintering house seems to have been much infested with them.

Mr.Bradbury, in the course of his botanical researches, found a surprising number in a half torpid state, under flat stones upon the banks which overhung the cantonment, and narrowly escaped being struck by a rattlesnake, which darted at him from a cleft in the rock, but fortunately gave him warning by his rattle.
The pigeons, too, were filling the woods in vast migratory flocks.

It is almost incredible to describe the prodigious flights of these birds in the western wildernesses.

They appear absolutely in clouds, and move with astonishing velocity, their wings making a whistling sound as they fly.