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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888 Lewis and Clarke's Expedition paratively low and small. Thence they diverge and l'eap. pear at the Charaton Searty, aftcl' which they are scarcely if at all tliscet•nible, till they advance to the Missouri ncar. ly opposite to the Kanzas. The same ridge of hills extemls on the south side, iu al­most one unbroken chain, from the mouth of the Missouri to the Kanzas, though decreasing in height beyond the Osage. As they are nearer the river than the hills on the opposite sides, the intermediate low gt•ounds are of course narrower, but the general character of the iOil is common to both sides. In the meadows and along tbe shore, the tl·ee most com­mon is the cottonwood, which with the willow forms almost the excJusivc growth of the Missouri. '1'he hills or rather high gr·ounds, for they do not l'ise higher than from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet, are composed of a good t•ich black soil, which is pe1·fectly susceptible of cul­tivatioa, though it becomes richer on the hills beyond the Platte, and are in genet·al thinly covered with timber. Be­yond these hills the country extends into high open plains, which are on both sides sufficiently fertile, but the south has the advantage of better streams of water, and may therefore be considered as preferable tor settlements. 'l'lu~ lands, however, becorue much better and the timber more abundant between the Osage and the Kanzas. ..From the Kanzas to the Nadawa the hiJJs continue at nearly an equal distance, vaa·ying from four to eight miles from each other, except that from the little Platte to nearly opposite the an­cient Kanzas village, the hills arc more remote, and the meadows of course wider on the nol·th side of the river. From the Nadawa the northern hills disap11ear, exce1>t at occasional intervals, where they arc seen at a distance, till they return about twenty-seven miles above the l:Jlatte near the ancient village of the Ayoways. On the south the hills continue close to the river from the ancient village of the Kanzas up to Council blu1f, fifty miles beyond tile Platte; Up tlze Missouri. 319 forming high prairie lands. On both sides the land~ are good, and perhaps this distance from the Obage to the Platte may be recommended as among the best districh on the Mii~touri for the purposes of settlel'fi. From the Ayeway village the northern hills again retire from the river, to which they do not return till three hun­dred and twenty miles above, at Floyd's river. The hills on the south also leave the rive•· at Council bluffs, aml reap­pear at the Mahar village, two hundred miles up the Mis­souri. The eountry thus abandoned by the hills is more open and the timber in smaller quantities than below the Platte, so that although the plain is rieh and covered witb high grass, the want of wood renders it less calculated for cultivation than below that river. The northern hills after remaining near the Missouri for a few mil~s at Floyd's river, re<•ede fl·om it at tlte Sioux river, the course of wl1ich they follow; and though they again visit the Missouri at Whitestone river, where they are low, yet they do not return to it till beyond James river. The highlands on the south, after continuing near the river at the Mahar villages, again disappeal', and do not approach it till the Cobalt bluffs, about forty-four miles from the vil­lages, and then from those bluff~ to the Yellowstone river, a distance of about one thousand miles, they follow the banks of the river with scarcely any devia.tion. From the James river, the lower grounds are confined within a nat·row space by the hills on both sides, which now continue near each other up to the mountains. The space between them ho\vever varies f1·om one to three miles as high as the Musuleshellriver, f1·om which the hilh appro3:ch so high as to leave scarcely auy low g1·ounds on the river, and near the falls reach the water's edge. Beyond the falls the bills are scattered and low to the fia·st range of moun­tains. The soil during the whole length of the Missouri below the Platte is generally speaking Yery fine, ami altbough the