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Show 78 Lewis and Clal'ke's Expedition drcd and ninety feet in elevation; from this descends an unbroken plain ove1· the whole of the beml, and the country is separated f1•om it by this ridge. Great numbers of lmtraloe, elk, and goats at·e wandering over these plains, accompanied by g1·ousc and larks. Captain Clarke saw a hare also, on the Great Bcnll. Of the goats killed to-day, one is a female differing from the male in being smaller in size; its horns too are smaller and stt·aightcr, having one short prong, atHl no black about the neck: none of these goats have any beard, but are tlelicately formed, and very beautiful. Friday, September 21. Between one aud two o'clock the serje2.nt on guard alarmed us, by cl'ying that the sandbar on which we lay was sinking; we jumped up, and found that both above ami below our camp the sand was under· mined and falling in very fast: we had scarcely got into the boats and pushed off, when the bank under which they hall been lying, fell in, and would certainly have sunk the two periogues if they l1ad remained there. By the time we reached the opposite shore tl1e ground of our encampment sunk also. We formed a second camp for the rest of the night, ami at daylight proceeded on to the gorge or throat of the Great Bend, where we breakfasted. A man, whom we bad despatched to step off the distance across the bend, made it two thousand yards: the circuit is thirty miles. During the whole course, the land of the bend is low, with occa· sional bluffs; that on the opposite side, high prairie ground, and long ridges of dark bluffs. After breakfast, we passed through a high prah·ie on the north side, and a rich cedar lowland and cedar bluff on the south, till we reached a wil· low island below the mouth of a small creek. rrhis creek, called Tyler's river, is about thirty·five yards wide, come in on the south, and is at the distance of six miles from the neck of the Great Bend. Here we foun<l a deer, and the skin of a white wolf, left us by our hunters al1ead: large quantities of different kinds of ploYcr and brants arf1 in this neigbboul'hood, and seen collecting and n1oving towards .. Up the JJlis1ouri. the south: the catfish are small, and not in such plenty as we had found them below this place. We passed several ,;andbars, which make the river very shallow and about a mile in width, and encamped on the south, at the distance of eleven ami a half miles. On each side the shore is lined with ba1'd rough gullcystones, rolled from the hills and small brooks. The most common timber is the ccdal', though, in the prairies, there are great quantities of the prickly pear. From this place we passed several sandbars, which make the river shallow, and about a mile in width. At the distance of eleven and a half miles, we encamped on the north at the lower point of an anci~nt island, which has since been connected with the main land by the :filling up of the northern channel, and is now covered with cottonwood. We here saw some tracks of Indians, but they appeared tl1ree or four weeks old. 'rhis day was warm. September 22. A thick fog detained us until seven o'clock; our course was through inclined 1n·airics on each side of the river, crowded with buffaloe. We halted at a point on the north side, near a high hi uti' on the south, and took a meridian altitude, which gave us the latitude of 44° 11' 3."->' T3o II • 0 n renew•tn g our course, we reached fh·st a small island on the south, at the distance of four and a half mHes immediately above which is another island opposite to ~ creek fifteen yards wide. 'l'bis creek, and the two islands, one of which is half a mile long, and the second tl.u·ce miles, arc ca~led the 'rhree Sisters: a beautiful plain extending on both stdes of the river. '"!'his is followed by an island on the north, called Cedat• island, about one mile and a half in length and the same distance in breadth, and deriving its name from the quality of the tim bet·. On the south side of this island, is a fort and a large tl'ading house, built by a Mt•. Loisel, who wintered here during the last year, in or~ er to trade with the Sioux, the remaius of whose camps are m great numbers about this 11laec. 'I'he establi:)hmcnt is sixty or seventy feet square, built with red ceda1' and pic- |
