14 December: Early in the morning, severe southeast wind with light snowflakes. Not significantly cold. At seven thirty, 28 1/2°F [−1.9°C]. The sky was densely covered with snow clouds.[Page 3:51]

We now had neither good meat nor fat for candles, altogether only a few tallow candles, so Charbonneau went to the Hidatsas today to procure something. He went on a sled and took along Síh-Sä. I went out at nine o’clock to the second creek to check on the mousetrap. The wind turned and blew straight from the south; it did not snow much. The wind [was] very strong. Also, all trails were covered, and one could not track. I found [that] my trap had been carried away again from its place by a fox or wolf. I looked for some time and finally found it. It was full of snow, but there was a mouse inside, still warm.

I discovered then that the mouse that can be tracked in the snow here, in all banks, hedges, and even on the prairie, is the same species I had already described earlier as Mus macrocephalus in my zoological notes. It is similar to our large field mouse (Mus sylvaticus) but has a thicker head, shorter ears, and a shorter tail. Besides this mouse I saw no animal today except for Corvus corax.

We weighed the largest wolf we had gotten up to now, which was generally considered very large, and found [that], because it was emaciated, it weighed only 58 pounds. Its length came to 4′ 10″ 3‴. The hair at the tip of its tail was not as long as the hair of the one stuffed at Fort Union, because [although] that one was indeed smaller [it] still measured fully 5′ in length. The wolf being weighed was a male. In the afternoon several Indians, [including] some Hidatsas, came; one of them had his face painted all yellow. A Mandan brought [us] a first-rate, beautiful white ermine, caught in a snare and in perfect condition. It did not seem different from the European [species]. The wind had turned during the morning completely toward the south, and the sky was altogether bright and clear. At twelve thirty, 28 1/2°F [−1.9°C]. Some of the Mandans had returned from the hunt [but] had shot only three bulls; [other] hunters had gone farther on. We had no prospect of the buffalo approaching if it did not get colder. Our meat would soon come to an end, and then we would have nothing to eat but boiled corn and corn bread. Coffee and sugar we hope to receive from the Yellowstone. In the evening a Gros Ventre came with beaver pelts, which Mr. Kipp bought. He told about a snow-white mink that stayed in the vicinity of his village that he had not been able to catch. The evening and the night were very stormy from the northwest.