Today we continued our travel over a sandy soil, making slow progress in
consequence. We set out at daybreak, and after going a couple of miles,
came to an Indian village. They live in tents made of buffalo skins.
These skins they support on poles set round in a circle on the ground,
and fastened together at the top. In cold weather they make their fires
in the center of the tent and have an aperture in the top for the smoke
to escape. These Indians, like all others, are always ready to trade,
and will sometimes give enormous prices for articles they happen to
fancy. Sugar and coffee are prized very highly by them. I have known
them to give from $1 to $3 per pint for the first, and as they seem to
have plenty of money just now, it will be a profitable trade for those
who have a surplus of these articles. Before I left the United States I
was not aware that these articles could be sold at such prices among the
Indians. Distance, twenty miles.