Equestrian Order is taken. The subjoined description of it, is from his recently published "Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians." "The Crows, like the Blackfeet, are beautifully costumed, and perhaps with somewhat more of taste and elegance; inasmuch as (with their dresses, and with their lodges) the skins of which they are made are more delicately and whitely dressed. The art of dressing skins belongs to the Indians in all countries, and the Crows' surpass the civilized world in the beauty of this white dressing. The art of tanning is unknown to them, so far as civilized habits and arts have not been taught them; yet the art of dressing skins, so far as we have it in the civilized world, has been (like hundreds of other ornamental and useful customs which we are practising) borrowed from the savage, without our even stopping to inquire whence it came, or by whom invented. The greater part of those skins go through the process of smoking. For this a small hole is dug in the ground, and a fire is built in it with rotten wood, which will produce a great quantity of smoke, without much blaze; and several poles of the proper length stuck in the ground around it, and drawn and fastened together at the top, around which a skin is wrapped in form of a tent, and generally sewn together at the edges to secure the smoke within it. Within this, the skins to be smoked are placed, and in this condition the tent will stand a day or so, enclosing the heated smoke; and by some chemical process or other, that I do not understand, the skins thus acquire a quality, which enables them, after being even so many times wet, to dry soft and pliant as they were before, which secret I have never yet seen practised in my own country, and for the lack of which, all our dressed skins, when once wet, are, I think, chiefly ruined. The Crows' are very handsome and gentlemanly Indians in their personal appearance, and have always been reputed, since the first acquaintance made with them, very civil and friendly. I have painted the chief (whence the accompanying etching is made), as he sat to me, balanced on his leaping wild horse, with his shield and quiver slung on his back, and his long lance, decorated with the eagle's quills, trailed in the right hand. His shirt, and his leggins, and his mocassins, were of the mountain goat skins, beautifully dressed, and their seams everywhere fringed with a profusion of scalp-locks, taken from the heads of his enemies in battle. His long hair, which reached almost to the ground while he was standing on his feet, was now lifted in the air, and floating in black waves over the hips of his leaping charger. On his head, and over his shining black locks, he wore a magnificent crest, or head-dress, made of the quills of the wareagle, and on his horse's head also was another of equal beauty, and precisely the same in pattern and material. Added to these ornaments, there were yet many others which contributed to his picturesque appearance, and amongst them a beautiful netting of various colours, that completely covered and almost obscured the horse's head and neck, and extended over its back and its hips, terminating in a most extravagant and magnificent crupper, embossed and fringed with rows of beautiful shells, and porcupine quills of various colours.*

"With all these picturesque ornaments and trappings upon and about him, with a noble figure, and the bold stamp of a wild gentleman on his face, added to the rage and spirit of his wild horse, in time with whose leaps he issued his startling (though smothered) yelps, as he gracefully leaned too and fro, leaving his plumes and his plumage, his long locks and his fringes, to float in the wind, he galloped about, and felt exceeding pleasure in displaying the extraordinary skill, which a lifetime of practice and experiment had furnished him, in the beautiful art of riding and managing his horse, as well as in displaying to advantage his weapons, and ornaments of dress, by giving them the grace of motion, as they were brandished in the air, and floating in the wind."

We have seen the original of this unique equestrian costume and caparison, and can bear testimony to the extreme fidelity of Mr. Catlin's description.-ED.

THE OAKLEY HUNT.

Ar no distant day we hope to give a memoir of this Hunt, from its commencement. All that our space allows us now to do, is briefly to allude to its present condition and prospects. The hounds and horses are in good force for the approaching season, and the establishment remains the same as it was during the past. Mr. Magniac has quite recovered from the very severe accident he met with last year; and from his great popularity and unquestionable qualifications for a master of foxhounds, he takes the field under goodly auspices, both for himself, and all who may be fortunate enough to meet him there. The very favourable weather during the cub-hunting season helped them to excellent sport; they killed twenty brace and a half, up to the 22nd of October. Their first public day will be Monday, November the 1st, from which date they will regularly hunt four days a week.

George Beers is the huntsman, an office he has filled for the last six years; Thomas Wells is the first whip, Charles Paine the second, and George Wells, a son of the first whip, rides the huntsman's second horse. Foxes are reported to be plenty, and they enter upon the season with every reasonable prospect of good sport. The kennel is at Melton Earnest, five miles north-west of Bedford; but when they hunt the Woburn country they occupy temporary kennels at the village of Lidlington. The subjoined coverts belong to the Oakley Hunt, but are now hunted, on sufferance, by the Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire foxhounds.

The distances on the accompanying Map are measured from the kennel at Milton Earnest. Our best acknowledgments are offered to Mr. Magniac, for his courteous attention in supplying the materials for it, and the kind readiness he displayed in affording the information required.