repeated in many localities in the vast region west of the Missouri. The identity of the stream near which the two tents stood during the winter of 1851-52 is suggested by a note in Fremont's journal, written 10 years earlier. On June 22, 1842, when traversing the prairies, soon to reach the right bank of the Platte, he wrote: "Made our bivouac in the midst of some well-timbered ravines near the Little Blue.... Crossing the next morning a number of handsome creeks, with clear water and sandy beds, we reached at 10 A. M., a very beautiful wooded stream, about thirty-five feet wide, called Sandy creek, and sometimes, as the Ottoes frequently winter there, Otto fork." (Fremont, (1), p. 14.) The greater part of the course of Sandy Creek is through the present Clay and Thayer Counties, Nebraska, a hundred miles or more south of west from the Oto village then situated near the mouth of the Platte. Möllhausen remained with the Oto until the temporary camp was abandoned, then returned with them to their permanent village. The journey required several weeks but in time they approached the Missouri, and as they neared their destination: "We passed the burial place of the Ottoes just before we descended into the valley, and shortly afterwards came to the village. The first consisted of a number of hillocks inclosed by rough palings, and decorated with sticks with little bits of coloured stuff and feathers fluttering from them. The village, which lay not many hundred yards farther was a group of about sixty huts of various construction, some of clay, shaped like haycocks or baking ovens, others like small houses, built of thick oak bark. These dwellings stood mostly empty, as the inhabitants had pitched their tents just now in the angle formed by the Nebrasca and Missouri, on account of the rich grass to be found in these bottom lands under the protecting snow, and because they and their cattle were in that situation more sheltered from the violent gales of wind." (Möllhausen, (1), I, pp. 210-211.) Here is a reference to a third form of habitation known to the Oto. In addition to the earth-covered lodge and the skin tipi, both of which were characteristic of the time and place, they appear to have reared structures similar to the habitation of the Sauk and Fox, as shown in plate 19, a type of dwelling known to several neighboring tribes in the upper Mississippi Valley. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 34 [Illustration: _a._ "Pemmican maul, Oto Agency, Nebrasca, J. W. Griest." Formed of one piece of wood. Extreme length, 39 inches. (U.S.N.M. 22437)] [Illustration: _b._ Heavy stone maul with handle attached. "Yankton Sioux. Fort Berthold. Drs. Gray and Matthews, U. S. A." Extreme length about 2 feet 2 inches. (U.S.N.M. 6325)] [Illustration: _c._ "Tools of the Mandans for dressing leather, Dakota. Drs. Gray and Matthews, U. S. A." Handle of antler, with flint blade attached. Extreme length of handle about 11 inches. (U.S.N.M. 8409)]