11 December: Early in the morning, dense haze and hoarfrost, cold, calm. We could not see the river because of the fog; snow frozen solid. At seven thirty, 7°F [−13.9°C]. Both our wood sleds had already left for the forest. Dogs and humans, who were in the open only a short time, appeared immediately covered with hoarfrost; the heads of the Indians were strange to see. Charbonneau told me of the early history of the Hidatsas and their battles since their he had begun living here. Afterward he went to Durand in the forest village, where he would spend the night. Soon the sun came out brightly and dispersed all fog.

At 11 o’clock I went out. The sunshine was extraordinarily warm. Tracks crisscrossed the snow in all directions. But I did not see anything except, in the second creek, a small flock of Fringilla linaria, of which I shot a single bird. [Page 3:50] I set up a mousetrap in a bunch of low-lying plants to see what species of mouse [that makes] the many trails we see here in the snow. At twelve thirty I was back home. At twelve o’clock the thermometer registered 14°F [−10°C]; it was completely calm. In the afternoon a wolf ran through between the fort and Mih-Tutta-Hangkusch. The fort’s dogs pursued and chased it into the village, where two Indians came toward it. It thereupon ran onto the prairie again. Mr. Bodmer followed it.

Dreidoppel went out, too. He saw a prairie wolf (schähä́ckä) run far away on the ice of the Missouri. However, it was forced to turn around by two Indians and ran toward the right bank again. Dreidoppel hurried ahead of it and hid in a ditch. The animal came at an acute angle toward him from a distance of 60 paces; he fired with [small] shot; the wolf turned and ran away from him. Then he shot [at] it with the rifle, and the bullet entered above its tail. When he reached it, the wolf crawled into a burrow. Dreidoppel was already on his way home when two Indians, who had pulled out the still-living animal, called him back. They brought it, still alive, into the fort, where Mr. Bodmer made a sketch of it.

Mató-Tópe was with us in the evening. [He] told me words of the Gros Ventre language and said the Dacotas had stolen two horses from them in the village, which they chased ahead of them. Since they could neither capture nor mount them, they shot them dead. The Mandans found [the animals and] saw from the tracks that there had been only two enemies. Mató-Tópe slept in our room.