History of the expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky mountains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean : performed during the years 1804-5-6 by order of the government of the United States; Volume 1

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188 Lcw·is and ()larkc's Expedition three feet high, similar to the campho1· in smeH and ta~te, and anotlter plant of the same size, with a long, narrow, ~mooth, soft leaf, of an agreeable smell and flavour, wl1ic1t is a favourite food or the antrloJ•e, "Lose necks arc often Jler­fumed by rubbing against it. Monday 15. \Yc proceeded under a fine breeze from the south, and clear pleasant weather. At seven miles we reached the lower point or an island in a bend to the south, which is two miles in length. Captain Clarke, who went about nine miles nOJ·thward f'rom the river reached the high gr·ounds, which, like those we have seen, are level plains without timber; here he obscr,·ed a number of drains, which descend­ing ft·om the hills pursue a northeast course, and J>robably empty into the Mouse river, a bt·anch of the Assiniboin, which from Indian accounts approaches very neat· to the .1\'Iissou­ri at this place. Like all the rivulets of' this neighbourhood these drains were so strongly impregnated with mineral salt.s that they are not fit to drink. lie saw also the remains of several camps of A.ssiniboins: the low g•~ounds on Loth sides of the rive•· arc extensive, rich, and level. In a little }Jond on the north, we hea1·d for the first. time this season the croaking of fl'ogs, which exactly resembles that of the small frag·s in the United States: there are also iu these plains sreat quantities of geese, and many of the grouse, o1· pt·airie hen, as they a1"c called by the N. \V. company tracJcrs; the note of the male, as fa1· as wol'c.1s can 1·cprescnt it, is cook, cook, cook, coo, coo, coo, the first J>art of w hicb both male aud female use when flying; the male too drums with llis wi.ng·s when he flies in the same way, though not so loud as the I>heas~nt; they at• pear to be mating. Some deer, elk, and goats lVet·c m the low grounds, and bulfaloe on the sand beaches, hut they were uucommonly shy; we also saw a black bear, a~d two white ones. At fifteen miles we passed on the nortb Side a small creek twenty yards wide, which we calJcd Goat-pen cJ·ccl· fr · · 1 .. "' . om a }MJ• '- Oi· enclosure for the }mrposc of catch- J.Hg ibat anHnal, which those who weut up tlle creek fotwd, • UJJ the JJlissouri. 189 ~nd which we presume to have been left by the A~!)iniboins. lts water is impregnated with mineJ·al salts, am} the coun­t• ·y through which it flows consist& of wide and V('ry fertile plains, but without any trees. W c cncamjwd at the distance> of twenty-three miles, on a sandpoint tu the south; we pas~ sed in the evening a rock in the middle of the river, the chan­nel of which a little above our camp, is confined within eighty yards. '.ruesday 16. The morning was clear, the wind light from the S. E. 'rhc country presents the same aJ,pearance of low plains and meadows on the river, bounded a few miles back by broken hills, which end in high level fertile lands, the quantity of timber is however increasing. 'rhe :lJ>pearances of minerals continue~ as usual, and to-day we found several stones which seemed to have been wood, first carbonated and then petrified by the water of the Missouri, which ha~ the same effect on many vegetable substances. '.rhere is in­deed reason to believe that the strata of coal in the hill ealtse the fire and apJlCaranccs \Yhich they exhibit of being­burned. \\'"hencver these marks present themselves in th(' bluffs on the river, the coal is seldom seen, and \vhen found in t]w neighbourhood of the strata of but·ut earth, the coal with the sand aml sulphut·ous matter usuaJJy accompanyin~ it, is precisely at the same height and nmu·!y of the sam~ thickness with those strata. 'Ve passed three small creek'\ or rather runs, which rise .in the hills to the north. N urn" bers of geese, and a few ducks chiefly of the mallard and bluewinged teal, many buifaloe, elk and deer were also ob­scned, and in the timbered low grounds this morning we were surpl'ised to observe a gr·cat quantity of old hornets' nests: we encamped in a point or woods on the sou(h, having come ejghteen miles, though the circuits which we were obliged to make round sandbars very much increased the real dis­tance. 'V ednesday, Aprili r. \Ve set off eady, the weather being fine~ and the w~nd so favourable as to enable us to sail the