8 March: In the morning, calm, moderately cold. The sky cleared nicely; soon after, [there was] bright sunshine. At seven thirty, 10°F [−12.2°C], wind hardly noticeable out of the northwest. The Indian boys caught snow buntings again, as they had on previous days, but we could not get any [birds] from them, because they were too hungry and ate them right away. Our coffee was so weak this morning that we could hardly drink it. Our provisions of this good plant were very meager; we had to be very economical. We had no sugar at all, except for fourteen pounds of white sugar, which would soon run out. Then we will have to take molasses and honey in our coffee again. Dreidoppel tracked a prairie fox close to the fort. He went into the hills to look for animals like that. The Indians stayed all morning and even and even later, till about three o’clock. I wrote down Arikara words. The Arikara gave me a decorated feather as a present. Máhchsi-KaréhdeM17He has still another strange name: Kuhá-Hándeh ('há' nasal like 'Hán', 'Hán' nasal as in French), that is, I Hear [Someone] Coming. brought red willow wood for tobacco. Crazy Bear brought his shield (that Catlin had painted very miserably for him in oil) and laid it down in our room. At twelve o’clock I missed [reading] the thermometer. The wind was southwest. At noon the weather [was] pleasant. Dreidoppel returned after lunch. He had found and shot two nice white rabbits [Page 3:157] near the hills [and] also spotted six prairie hens. He saw a prairie fox flee into his den in the ground as well as a gopher (machtóhpka), and he returned later to set snares for both. The wind turned around more toward the east [and then] came out of the southeast. In the evening, fairly calm, dark, and cold. Charbonneau was with the Hidatsas. The buffalo are supposed to be en masse not far away, and [the Hidatsas] all want to go hunting; some of them have already.