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Show Lewis and Clat•ke's Expedition Saturday 18. The wind continued high from tlu~ west, but by means of the towline we were able to make uineteew miles, the sandbars being now few in number. the ··h·er narw row and the current gentle; the willow has in a gt·eat meaw sure disappeared, and even the cottonwood, almost the only timber remaining, is growing scarce. At twelve and three quarter miles we came to a creek on the north, which "as perfectly dry. We encamped on the south optloshe the lower point of an island. Sunday 19. The last night wa3 disagreeably cold; and in the morning there was a very heavy fog which obscured the river so much as to prevent our seeing the way. This is the first fog . f any degree of thickness which we have experienced: there wai also last evening a fall of dew, the second which we have seen since entering this extensive open country. About eight o·clock the fog dispersed, and we proceeded with the aid of the towline: the island near lVhieh we were encamped, was three quarters of a mile in lenglh. 'l'he counti·y resembles that of yesterday, high hills closely bordering the river. In the afternoon the l'iver be· came crooked, and contained more sawyers or floating tim· ber than we have seen in tbe same space since leaving the Platte. Our game consisted of deer, beavea~, and elk: we ~lso killed a brown bear, who, although shot through the heart, ran at his usual pace nearly a qua1·ter of a mile lJe .. fore he fell. At twenty -one miles is a willow island half a mile in length, on the north side, a quarter of a mile beyond which is a shoal of rapid water under a bluff: the water continued very strong for some distance beyond it: at half a mile we eame to a sandbar on the north, from which to our place of encampment was another half mile, making in all twenty-two and a quarter miles. The saline substances which we have mentioned continue to ap11ear; and the men are much afllicted with sore eyes and imposthumes. . Monday 20. As usual we set oui early, and the banks bemg convenient for that purpose, we used the towline: Up t1te Jtlissouri. the river is narrow and ct·ooked, the water rapid, and the coun• l'Y much like that of yP-sterday: at the distance of two and a quat·ter miles we passed a large creek '\\ith but little water, to which we gave the name ot' Blowingfly creek, from the quantity of those insects found in ils neighbour· hood. They are extremely troublesome, infesting our meat 'vhilst cooking and at our meals. Aftt~ r makin~ seven miles we reached by eleven o'clock the mouth of a large J'iver oo the south, and en<'amped for the day at th~ upper point of its junction with the Missouri. This stream which we suppose to be that called by the Minnetaree!J the l\1 usclesht'll river, empties into the Missouri two thousand two humh·cd and seventy miles above the mouth ot the latter river, and in latitude 47° o' 24" 6 north. It is one hundred and ten ya•·ds wide, and contains more water than sta·eams of that size usually do in this country; its curreot is by no means rapid, and there is every appearance of its beiug susceptible of navigation by canoes for a considerable distance: its bed is chieily formed of eoarse sand and gt·avel. wilh an occasional mixture of black mud; the banks abl'upt and neal'ly twelve feet high, so that they a1·e secure from being overflowed: the water is of a greenish yellow cast and muoh more transparent than that of the Missouri, which itself, though clearer than below, still retains its whitish bue and a portion of its sediment. Opposite to the point of junction the curt·ent of' the Missouri is gentle, and two hunllt·et.l and twenty-two yards in width, the I.Jed pr·incipally of mud (the little sand remaining being wholly conJloed to the pomts) and still too deep to use the seHingpole. lf this b~, as we suppose, the Museleshell, our lndian information is, that it l'JSes in the ih·st chain or the Uocky mountains not far from the sources of the Yellowstone, whence in its eour·se to this place it waters a high bt·okeu countt·y, well timbered pa1·ticularl1 on its bo1·ders, and iutm·stJel·seu with handsome fertile plains and meadows. We have t•cason, hvwcver, to believe, f1·om their giving a similar account of the timber |
