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Show 278 Lcwi1 aud Clarl~t· • E~pedition Friday, June 21. Having made the necestary prepara. tionii for continuing our route, a part of the baggage was cat>ried aCI'OSi the creek into the high plain, thr·ce mil~s in advance and placed on one of the carriages with truck wheels: the rest of the party was employed in drying meat and dressing elk skins. "' c killed seve••al muledeer and an elk, and observed as uiual va~t quantities of buffaloe who came to th·ink at the river. For the first time on the !lissouri we have scrn near the falls a species of fishing duck, the Lody of which is Lrown and white, the wings whitr, aml the head and upper part of the neck of a brick red, with a narrow ucak, which seems to Le of t.l1e same kind common in the Susquohanna, Potomac am) Jamett' river. The little wood which thii neighbourhood afford& consists of the broad and nar·row-lcafed cottonwood, the Lox alder, the nar1·ow and broad-leafed willow, the large or sweet wiJlow, which was not common below ~1al'ia'i riTcr, but which here attains the &amc iize and has th~ 1mme up}lear· ancc as in the Atlantic states. 'I'hc under·growth consists of roses, gooscuenics, currants, small honeysuckles, and the redwood, the inner part of whirh the engage~ or water· men are fond of smoking when mixed with tobacco. Saturday, 22. We now set out to pass the portage and halted for dinner at eight miles distance neat• a little stream. 'l'hc axlctrccs of our carriage, which had been made of an old mast, and the cott.onwoo(l tongues Lrokc before '''e came there: uut wc.rcncwed them wjth the timber of the sweet wil· low, which lasted till within half a mile of our intended ca,mp, when the tongues gave way and we were obliged to take as mueh baggage as we could carry on our backs down to the river, where we formed an encampment in a small grove of timLer opposite to the 'Vhilcbear i~lands. Hef'e the banks on both sides of the river arc handsome, ]evcl, and extcn!iive; that near our camp is not more than two feet above the surface of the water. The rher is about eight hundred yards wide just aboye these islands, ten feet tlecp Up tlw .lflissoUJ•i. in most places, and with a very gentle current. The plain~ however on this part of the river are not so fertile as those from tbe mouth of the Muscleshell and t11enre downwards; there is much more stone on the sides of the hills and on the broken lands than is to be found lowet• down. We saw in the }llaini vast quantities ot' buffaloe, a numbel' of small birds, aml the large brown curle,,-, which is now sitting, and lays its eggs, which are of a pale Llue with black specks, em the ground without any nest. 'l"'here is also a species of" lark much resembling the bh·d called the oldfield lark, with a yellow breast and a black spot on the croup; though it dif. 1'crs from the latter in having its tail formed of ft•athcrs of an unequal length and 11ointed; the beak too is somewhat longer and mot·e curved, and the note differs considerably. The prickly pear annoyed us very much to-day by sticking tht·ough our moccasins. As soon as we had kindled ouJ' fires \Ye examined the meat which captain Clarke lmdleft here, but found that the greater part of it had been taken by the wolves. Sunday, 2S. After we had brought up the canoe and baggage captain Clat·ke went down to the camp at J>ortagc ereek, where four of the men had been left with the Indian woman. Captain Lewis during the morning prepared the Qamp, and in the af'ternoon went down in a canoe to Medi «Sine rivftr to look after the three men who had been ~ent thither to hunt on the 19th, and from whom nothing had as yet been heard. lie went up the •·iver about half a mile and then 'ralked along on the right bank, hallooing as he went, till at the distance of five miles he found one of them who had fixed hii camp on the opposite bank, where be bad killed seven deer and d1·icd about six hundred pound! of buffaloe meat, but had killed no elk, tl1e animal chiefly wanted. He knew nothing of his companion! except that on the day of their departure f1·om camp he ha(lleft them at th6. falls and come on to Medicine river, not having seen them sinoe. As it was too late to return eaptain Lewis passed |