{ 209} According to Ross Cox,[15] the Canadians eat the rattlesnake; but I can affirm that we never saw an instance of it; on the contrary, they always manifested the greatest antipathy to those animals. This traveller likewise says that the serpent often bites itself, but I cannot believe this, as I never succeeded in any attempt to make him do so.
The next day, the 8th, we had again many difficulties. The river was shallow in places, and our men were obliged to get into the water to push our vessel on. In order to convey them from the boat to the land, there were no means but by laying a board, which had to be placed in a slanting position, so that it was no easy matter to climb up. On the left bank they were often prevented from proceeding, because the ground was so loose that it gave way under their feet. In this manner three Assiniboins had been killed, who sat down below the bank, when the sand fell, and buried them. The forest through which our men passed, had, in these parts, a very thick underwood of roses and buffalo-berries, and there were many very large frogs in it. At a place where the chain of hills recedes behind woods and thickets from the Missouri, we came to the mouth of a stream, with a soft bottom, which is called, by the Canadians, La Rivière aux Trembles, and, by Lewis and Clarke, Martha's River.[16] Of all the hunters whom we had landed at this place, Papin alone brought a very fat deer; but it cost much trouble to take our hunters on board again, for the _engagés_ who went with the boat for that purpose, fell up to the waist in mud, after taking off their clothes. They were forced partly to swim, partly to wade, in order to reach the land. A little further up, the labour of the men towing the vessel was still greater; for, on the other side of a sand bank, the river was covered with snags, the intervals between which were hidden by foam and small twigs. The men, in a long row, had to step or jump from one of these snags to another, the sand being too soft to bear their weight; but they frequently missed the snags, and fell between them, up to their arms, into the river, so that many of them, who had never before done such work, trembled all over, and returned to the vessel. When they had got over these difficulties, they reached the prairie, beyond which, at the distance of from 150 to 200 paces from the bank of the river, the most singular pyramids rose, like towers. Our hunters had killed an elk, a variable hare,[17] and a large rattlesnake. The willow thickets on the bank, over which the goatsucker was hovering, and from the edge of which a large wolf stood looking at us, were full of mosquitoes, which, happily for us, were kept at a distance from the vessel by a slight wind, when we took up our quarters for the night on shore. If we shot a goatsucker, we found in his capacious jaws a ball of mosquitoes, which quite filled it, which are gradually collected and swallowed from time to time; so that the name, _mangeur des maringouins_, given to this bird by the Canadians, is very appropriate. During the night, however, those troublesome insects had found their way into our cabin, and sadly tormented us on the 9th, in the morning, for which reason we were very glad to proceed on our voyage, which, { 210} however, began with new difficulties. Two deer swam through the river near us, and many shots were fired at them in vain, as well as at some buffaloes; yet our deck was quite hung round with game, especially portions of the large elks. Our men broke the large bones of these animals, and used the marrow for greasing the locks of their guns. The skins of such animals, killed on these voyages, belong to the Company, and are used to make shoes for their servants.