On the 14th of January, the cold was only 8° below zero, but there was such a high, piercing wind, that our woodcutters complained more than when the cold was more severe. In these prairies it is, for the most part, the wind which makes the cold intolerable; and though persons who ventured out wore woollen caps which left only the eyes exposed, yet their faces were frostbitten. Our provisions were very bad, for Picotte had sent us only tough, hard, stale meat, besides which we had nothing but maize and beans, and the water of the river. Mato-Topé, in his finest dress, accompanied by many Indians, visited us. He wore a large hood of red cloth, adorned with forty long eagles' feathers, and was going to Ruhptare, where a medicine son was to be adopted.
Double rainbow
Little Soldier (Tukan Haton), a Sioux chief
In the night of the 14th, the wind blew with such violence, that it scattered the heap of ashes from the fire place all over the room, so that our beds, benches, and clothes were completely covered with them. Mato-Topé returned on this day from Ruhptare, and told us, with great satisfaction and self-complacency, that he had enumerated all his exploits, and that no one had been able to surpass him. Old Garreau, who was constantly with our engagés in the fort, complained to me, that, for a long time, he had lived on nothing but maize boiled in water; and this was really the case with many persons at this place, as game became more and more scarce. When Garreau first came to these parts, game abounded, and beavers were heard in all the streams, striking with their tails; now, however, even the Indians are often reduced to want of food. On the 21st of January, while the Indians passed the night without fire, in the prairie, in order to hunt, the thermometer was at 30° below 0 (27½° Reaumur); the wind was easterly, and pretty high. The land and the river were covered by a dense mist, through which the sun penetrated when just above the horizon; on either side was a large crescent, which rose as high as the upper surface of the mist, the eastern one extending to the frozen surface of the river. They were at some distance from the sun, {439} and, like it, appeared of a light yellowish-white through the misty vapour.[39] Sometimes we observed, in the light misty clouds on the horizon, two short, beautifully coloured rainbows, at some distance from the sun, which, being interrupted by the upper stratum of clouds, did not rise to any great height. The snow was now frozen so hard, that it could be broken into large pieces, which emitted a clear sound when struck with the foot. In the sunshine the atmosphere sparkled with innumerable particles of floating ice. The Indians had cut some holes in the ice on the Missouri, to procure water, and fenced them round with poles and brushwood covered with buffalo hides, as a protection against the cold wind. At noon the weather was rather milder, the temperature being 10½° below zero. Three Yanktonans came to the fort with a view to persuade the Mandans to join in an expedition against another tribe.
Mr. Bodmer took a very excellent likeness of Psihdje-Sahpa, one of the three Yanktonans.[40]