OCR Text |
Show 818 we bad the small flags hoiited in the canoes to apprise tlw Indians. ifther·e were any in the neighbourhood, of our being wJ1ile men and their· fr·iends; hut we were not so fol'tunat~ as to discoYeL' any of them. Along the shores we saw great quantities of the common thistle, and procured a furtJJCr supply of wild onions and a species of garlic growing on the highland-i, which is now green and in bloom: it has a flat Jear, and is sh·ong, tough, and disagt•eeahle. There was also much of the wild flax, of which we now obtained some ripe seed, as well as some uullrush and cattail flag. Amongthcanimah we met with a bJacl~ snake about two feet long, with the belly as d:uk as any of her part of the body, which was perfeclly black, and which had one ltumleed and twenty~ eight scuta on the belly and sixty-three on the tail: we also saw antelopes, crane, geese, ducks, beaver, and ottea·; and took up fou1· deer which had been len on the water side by captain Clal'ke. He had pursued all day an Indian road ou the rigllt side of the a·iver, and encamped late in the evening at the dist.mcc of twenty-iive miles from our cam11 of last night. In the course of his walk he met besides deer a number of antelopes and a he1·d of elk, buf all the tracks of Indians, thoug·h numerous, were or an old date. 'Vednesday~ 2-1. \Ve proceeded for fout· and a quartet• miles along sevet·al islands to a small run, just above which the low hlulfs touch the rivet·. \Vithin three and a IJalf miles fUJ·thcr we came to a small island on the not·th, and aremat ·kablc bluff comJloscd of earth of a crimson colour, intermixed wHh s(ratas of slate, eitl1er black or of a red resembling brick. 1'he following six and three qual'ter miles brought us to an assemblage of islands, having passed four at different distances; and wHhjn the next five miles we met the same number of islands, and eAcampecl on tl1e noJ•tb after making nineteen and a. half miles. 'rhe current of the riven· was strong ami obstructed, as indeed it has been for some days by small rapids or ripples which descend from one to tht'ec feet iR the course of one h undred and fifty Up the JJ1issottri. 319 yards, hut they are rat·ely incommoded by any fixed rocks, and therefore, though the water is raJ>id, the passage is not attended with danger. ,.l'hc valley th1'ough which the rivet~ passes is like that of yesterday; the nearest hills generally concealing the most distant from us; but when we obtain a view of them they present themselves in amphitheatre. l'ising above each other as they recede from the river till the most remote arc covered with snow. 'Ve saw many otter and beaver to-day: the latter seem to rontribute very much to the number of islands and the widcninj; of the river. rrhey begin by damming up the small channels of about twenty yards between the islands; this obliges the rivet' to seek anothet' outlet, and as soon as this is cflcctct.l the chan~ ncl stopped lly the beaver becomes fillc<l with mud and sand. The industrious animal is then driven to another channel which soon shares the same fate, till tl•e river spreads on all sides, aml cuts the projecting points of the land into islands. We killed a deer and saw great numhcl'S ol' antelopes, cranes, some geese, ami a ft.'W t'edheadcd ducks. 'l,he small birds oi' the plains and the etu·lcw ar·e still abundant: we saw but could not eollle within gun&hot of a large bear. rrhere is much of (he tJ•ack of eJk but nouc of the animals themselves, and from the appl'arauee of bone! ami old excrement, we suppose that buJfaloe have sometimes strayed into the yalley, though we have as yet seen no recent sign oft.hem. Along the watet· are a number of snakes, some of a brown uniform colour, others IJlack, and a thir<l speckled on the abdomen, and stt·ipcd with black and a brownish yellow on the ba<·k and sit.les. '!'he first, which are the largest, are about four feet long; the second is of the kind mentioned yesterday, and the third resembles in size and appearance the garter-snake of tho United States. On examining the teeth of all these several kinds we found them free from poison: they are foud of the water, in which they take shelter on being pursued. The musquitoe!, gnats, and priekly pear, our tbree pel'secutors, still continue with • |