February 12, 1805
Tuesday 12. The morning is fair though cold, the mercury being 14° below 0 the wind from the S.E. About four o'clock the horses were brought in much fatigued; on giving them meal bran moistened with water they would not eat it, but preferred the bark of the cottonwood, which as is already observed forms their principal food during the winter. The horses of the Mandans are so often stolen by the Sioux, Ricaras, and Assiniboines, that the invariable rule now is to put the horses every night in the same lodge with the family. In the summer they ramble in the plains in the vicinity of the camp, and feed on the grass, but during cold weather the squaws cut down the cottonwood trees as they are wanted, and the horses feed on the boughs and bark of the tender branches, which are also brought into the lodges at night and placed near them. These animals are very severely treated; for whole days they are pursuing the buffalo, or burdened with the fruits of the chase, during which [161]they scarcely ever taste food, and at night return to a scanty allowance of wood; yet the spirit of this valuable animal sustains him through all these difficulties, and he is rarely deficient either in flesh or vigour.

February 13, 1805
Wednesday 13. The morning was cloudy, the thermometer at 2° below 0, the wind from the southeast. Captain Clarke returned last evening with all his hunting party: during their excursion they had killed forty deer, three buffalo, and sixteen elk; but most of the game was too lean for use, and the wolves, who regard whatever lies out at night as their own, had appropriated a large part of it: when he left the fort on the 4th instant, he descended on the ice twenty-two miles to New Mandan island, near some of their old villages, and encamped, having killed nothing, and therefore without food for the night.

February 14, 1805
Thursday 14. Last night the snow fell three inches deep; the day was, however, fine. Four men were dispatched with sleds and three horses to bring up the meat which had been collected by the hunters. They returned however, with intelligence that about twenty-one miles below the fort a party of upwards of one hundred men, whom they supposed to be Sioux, rushed on them, cut the traces of the sleds, and carried off two of the horses, the third being given up by intercession of an Indian who seemed to possess some authority over them; they also took away two of the men's knifes, and a tomahawk, which last however they returned. We sent up to the Mandans to inform them of it, and to know whether any of them would join a party which intended to pursue the robbers in the morning. About twelve o'clock two of their chiefs came down and said that all their young men were out hunting, and that there were few guns in the village. Several Indians however, armed some with bows and arrows, some with spears and battle-axes, and two with fusils, accompanied Captain Lewis, who set out.

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