borhood of Porcupine creek.' Several thousand elk-horns, piled one upon another, form this singular structure. I could not learn what caused the erection of such a strange monument, nor when and by whom it was built. Herds of elk and deer are very numerous here.
On the 9th and Loth we passed the Poplar and Big Muddy rivers. My hunters continued their ravages among the animals. They killed one bull merely for the sake of his tongue, hump and marrowbones, a very fat black bear (the most delicate of his kind), a red-tailed deer, several ducks and bustards, which -were passing in thousands, flying southeasterly and announcing the approach of winter. All the way down from Fort Lewis we had observed beaver works everywhere on the river. These interesting and laborious animals multiply exceedingly in these regions, where the trappers let them alone to avoid the war-parties which roam here incessantly.
On the Ilth, we arrived at Fort Union, near the mouth of the Yellowstone and Goo miles from Fort Lewis; we have therefore made about fifty miles a day. The gentlemen of the fort received us with much politeness and affability. We accepted with pleasure and thankfulness the hospitality they offered us, and rested there for a day, in which time I baptized five half-breed children. I started out on the 13th with my two companions. Buffalo appeared in herds on all sides, and we saw bear, deer, elk and antelope at every turn of the river; there is little danger of having to fast at this season of the year. On the I 5th, our desire to proceed in spite of a violent wind was calmed all at once by a wave
4 Maximilian of Wied visited the Elkhorn Steeple July 11, 1833, and gives a picture of it among his plates. He says it was a propitiatory or medicine pile, erected by Blackfeet war or hunting parties from the antlers and buffalo horns with which the prairie was littered, and that they indicated the strength of their parties with red marks on the horns. It stood 8oo yards from the river and was sixteen to eighteen feet high and twelve to fifteen through. The fate of this curious relic is told by Father De Smet in a letter. See p. 1372.