10 September: In the morning, cool, bright, beautiful weather. The Indian rode away early and did not even ask for tobacco. A Piegan, on the other hand, would have begged for some. These Gros Ventres are good Indians. Mr. Mitchell sent three men along who should take all the horses at the place where the woodcutters are and bring the meat to the fort. Loretto was also hunting. At 7:30, 64°F [17.8°C]. I went with Mr. Bodmer to the hills, where he was drawing, and roamed over the parched prairie filled with grasshoppers. I saw only small flights of the mountain lark (Alauda alpestris or montana), I shot one; its neck was pale and had a mixture of colors. Several Syngenesia, and other plants with primarily yellow flowers, were still blooming in large number. At ten o’clock it was already very warm; later, wind arose on the hills. Mr. Culbertson had sent a letter with the wrong information to Harvey, and the latter had sent only three horses to the Gros Ventres for the meat. At twelve o’clock, 66°F [18.9°C].

After lunch Mr. Mitchell went to the workers at the new fort, where he found a hundred cut pickets and the new fort marked out. The men were very pleasantly situated in a beautiful forest [and] had built a small shelter surrounded with wood for the horses and for themselves, in the event of an attack by the Indians; there was a surplus of hay there for the former. At two o’clock seven or eight Gros Ventres arrived, including both chiefs, with eighteen horses loaded with meat, for which they took whiskey, knives, and other articles. The evening was very pleasant and not cool, the sky clear and starlit.