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Show 186 Lewis awl Clarl~c's Expe£lziion conYcnicut lumting ground for that animal, remained behind tJJcrc: in the evening we encamped in a beautiful plain on the north thirtyfcet. auove the river, having made twenty. two aud a half miles. Sunday 14. 'Ve set off early with J•lensant ami fail' wea. ther: a dog joined us, which we suppose had strayed from the Assiniboiu camp on the lake. Ai two and a halfmiles we passed timbcre•llow grounds and a small creek: in these low grounds are several uninhabited lodges built with the boughs of the elm, and the remains of two recent encampments, wl1ich from the boops of small kegs found in them wejmlged could belong to Assiniboins only, as they are the only Missouri Indians who use spirituous liquors: of these Lhey are so passionately fond that it forms their chief inducement to visit the British on the Assiniboin, to whom they barter for kegs of rum tbeit· dried and pounded meat, their grease, and the skins of large and small wolves, and small foxes. The dangerous exchange is transported to their camps with their friends and relations, and soon exhausted in brutal intoxication: so fat· from considering drunkenness as disgraceful, the women and childt•en are permitted and invited to share in these excesses with their husbands and fathers, who boast how often their skill and industry as hunters has SUilplied them with the means of intoxication: in this, as in their othQr habits and customs, the~- resemble the Sioux from whom they are descended: the trade with the Assiniboins and Knistenaux is encouraged by the British, becauBe it procures provision for their engages on their retut·n from Rainy lake to the English river and the Athabasl\y country where they winter; these men IJeing oiJiiged during that voyage to pass rapidly through a country but scantily supplied witb game. 'Ve halted for dinner ne~r a large viJJage of burrowing squirt ·el~, who we observe generally select a southeasterly exposure, though they are sometimes found in the plains. At ten and a quarter miles we came to the lower poiut of aD U11 the .:Uissom·i. island, which fl'om the day of our art·hal thc1•e we called Sunday island: here the river washes the based of the hill on both sides and above the island, which with its sandbar extends a mile and a half: two small creeks f~lll in from the south; the upp.ermost of these, whicL is the largest~ we called Chaboneau's creek, after our interpreter who once encamped on it several weeks with a party of Indians. Beyond this no white man had ever been excellt two }~renchmen, one of whom Lapage is with us, and who having lost their way straggled a few miles f lirther, though to what point we could not ascertain: about a mile and a half beyolld this island we encamped on a point of woodland on the north, having made in all fourteen miles. The Assiniboins have so recently left the t·ivcr that game is scarce and shy. One of the hunters shot at an otter last evening; a bu1faloe too was killed, and an elk, both so poor as to be almost unfit for use; two white bear were also seen, and a muskrat swimming across the river. The river continues wide and of about the same raJlidity as the Ol'dinary current of the Ohio. rrhc low gt·ounds are wide, the moister parts containing timbct·, the UJ>land extremely broken, without wood, and in some places seem as if ilwy Jtad slipped down in masses of several act·es in sut·face. The mineral appearances of salts, eoal, and sulphu t·, with the burnt. hill and Immicestone continue, and a bitunainous waf.et· about the colour· of stroug lye, with the taste of g Jauhcr salts and a slight tincture of allum. Many geese '~ere feeding in the prairies, audanumbcrofmagpies who build thei r· nests much like those of tlte blackbird in trees, aud com1wscd of small stieks, leaves ami gt•ass, open at top: the egg is or a bluish brown colour, freckled wi1h reddish bt•own s1wts. ' Ve also killed a large hooting owl r·esrmbling th:tL of Ote United States, except that it was more booted ami clad with feathers. On the hills are many at·omatic herbs, resembling in taste, smell and appeat·ance the sage, hysop, u ot·mwood, southern wood, juniper and dwarf cedar; a plant also about two or |