An excellent description of the skin-covered tipi of the Sioux, but of the structures of the Yankton in particular, is contained in Maximilian's narrative. Writing on May 25, 1833, he said the "Sioux Agency, or, as it is now usually called, Fort Lookout, is a square, of about sixty paces, surrounded by pickets, twenty or thirty feet high, made of squared trunks of trees placed close to each other, within which the dwellings are built close to the palisades.... About ten leather tents or huts of the Sioux, of the branch of the Yanktons or Yanktoans, were set up near the fort.... All these Dacotas of the Missouri, as well as most of those of the Mississippi, are only hunters, and, in their excursions, always live in portable leather tents.... The tents of the Sioux are high pointed cones, made of strong poles, covered with buffalo skins, closely sewed together. These skins are scraped on both sides, so that they become as transparent as parchment, and give free admission to the light. At the top, where the poles meet, or cross each other, there is an opening, to let out the smoke, which they endeavor to close by a piece of the skin covering of the tent, fixed to a separate pole standing upright, and fastened to the upper part of the covering on the side from which the wind blows. The door is a slit, in the front of the tent, which is generally closed by another piece of buffalo hide, stretched upon a frame. A small fire is kept up in the centre of the tent. Poles are stuck in the ground, near the tent, and utensils of various kinds are suspended from them. There are, likewise, stages, on which to hang the newly-tanned hides; others, with gaily-painted parchment pouches and bags, on some of which they hang their bows, arrows, quivers, leather shields, spears, and war clubs.