OCR Text |
Show Lewis tt1ttl Clarke's .Expedition w~ passed a sma1J island in a deep bend to the north, and on the same side in a deep northeastrrn brnd of the river another smaH island. None of these rreeks Jaowcver possessed any wat~r, and at the entrances of the islands, the two first are covered with tall cottonwood timber, and the last with wjllows only. The river has become more rapid. the country much the same as yestpa·day, cxrept that there is rather mor(• ro(•ks on the face of the hills. and some small spruce pine appears among the pitch. Thew ild roses are very abundant and now in bloom; they differ from those of the United States only in having the leaves and the bush itself of a somewhat smaller size. We find the muS(juitoes troublesome, notwithstanding the coolness of the morning. rrhe buffaloe is scarce to-day, but the elk, deer, and antelope, are very numerous. The geese begin to lose the feathers of the wings, and are unable to fty. We saw five bears, one of which we wounded, but in swimming from us across t.he river, he become entangled in some driftwood and sank. We formed our camp on the north opposite to a hill and a point of wood in a bend to the south, haYing made twentyseven miles. Friday ~4. 'rhe watet• in the kettles froze one eighth of an inch during the night; the ice appears alonc-r the marooin of the river, and the cottonwood-trees which b:ve lost nc~rly all their leaves by the frost, arc putting forth other buds. We proceeded with the line principal1y till about nine o'clock, when a fine breeze sprung up from the S. E. and enabled us to sail very well, notwiths1anding the rapidity of the curr~ nt. At one mile and a half is a large creek thirty yards Wide~ ~nd containing some water "hich it empties on the north side, over a gravelly bed, intermixed with &ome stone. A man who was sent up to explore the country returned in the evening, after having gone ten miles directly towat•ds :tfh e •:idgc of mountains to the north, which is the source this. as well as of 1'eapot crel'k. rrhe air of these highands 18 so }JUre, that objects appear mueh nearer than Up the .JJ'Iissow·i. t.hey rPally ar~, so that although our man went ten miles without thinking himself by any means half way to the mountains, they do not from the river appear more than fifteen miles distant; this stream we called 'Northmountain creek. 'fwo and a half miles higher is a creek on the south which is fifteen yards wide, but without any water, and to which we gave the name of Littlcdog creek, from a village of burrowiug squirrels opposite to it! entrance, that being the name given by the French watermen to those animals. Three miles from this a small creek enters on the north, five beyond which is an island a quarter of a mile in lPngth, aml two miles further a small river: this falls in on the south, is forty yards wide, and discharges a handsome stream of water; its bed rocky with gravel and sand, and the banks high: we called it Southmountain creek, as ft·om its direction it se(•mcd to rise in a range of mountains about firty ot· sixty miles to the S. " 7 • of its entrance. The low grounds are narrow and without timber; the country high and broken; a hu·gc portion of black rock . and brown sanely rock appears in the face of the hills, the tops of which are covered with scattered pine, spruce anti dwarf cedar; the soil is generally poor, iandy near the top~ of the hills, and nowhere producing much grass, the low grounds being covered with little else than the hysop. or soutltern wood, and the pulpy-IPafed thorn. Game is mor·e scarce, particularly beaver, of which we have seen but few for several days, and the abundance or scarcity of which seems to depend on the greater or less quantity of timber. At twenty-four and a half miles we reached a point of woodland on the south, where we observed that the trees had no leaves, and encampe(l for the night. 'fhe bigh country through which Wl' have passed for some days, and where we now are, ''e suppose to be a continuation or what the French traders called the Cote Noire or Bhu~k hills. The country th•us denominated consi~ts of high brol~cn irregular hills and shol't chains of mountains, Fiometimc., ()De hun•lred |