The expedition left the Arikara during the afternoon of October 12, and on that date in the narrative appears an interesting account of the then recent migrations of the tribe: "They were originally colonies of Pawnees, who established themselves on the Missouri, below Chayenne, where the traders still remember that twenty years ago they occupied a number of villages. From that situation a part of the Ricaras emigrated to the neighborhood of the Mandans, with whom they were then in alliance. The rest of the nation continued near the Chayenne till the year 1797, in the course of which, distressed by their wars with the Sioux, they joined their countrymen near the Mandans. Soon after a new war arose between the Ricaras and the Mandans, in consequence of which the former came down the river to their present position. In this migration those who had first gone to the Mandans kept together, and now live in the two lower villages, which may be considered as the Ricaras proper. The third village was composed of such remnants of the villages as had survived the wars, and as these were nine in number a difference of pronunciation and some difference of language may be observed between them and the Ricaras proper, who do not understand all the words of these wanderers. The villages are within the distance of four miles of each other, the two lower ones consist of between one hundred and fifty and two hundred men each, the third of three hundred." (Lewis and Clark, (1), I, pp. 92-104.) Following this, on page 106, is a brief description of the earth-covered lodges of the Arikara, which were of "a circular or octagonal form, and generally about thirty or forty feet in diameter," but a rather better description was prepared by one of the members of the expedition, Patrick Gass, who wrote on October 10: "This day I went with some of the men to the lodges, about 60 in number. The following is a description of the form of these lodges and the manner of building them.