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16 Rose at 4 ½ & at 5 ½ we left, the morning was fine & we made time passing Pawnee rock at 8 ½ The morning was smokey & the day was one of the most delightful I ever saw – fine Indian Summer – we saw number of small bands of Buff mostly old Bulls driven out from the herds by the young bulls who guard the cows & calves with great care – The Buff are diminishing very rapidly having disappeared fr many of their old haunts within a few years from the Sweet-water & the mountain ravines around it. where they were formerly found in great numbers & also fr other places – They are found now between the Ark river & to within 200 m of the mo on the vast ridges & plains of the Smoky Hill Walnut & Pawnee forks In the Fall of the year in great numbers along the wide bottoms of the Ark – This year however they are scarce on the Ark it being dry as a powder horn –