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Show S96 this neighbourhood are an unusual nunabcr of males, wlai 0 higher up tho river the numerous hrrds consist of f<·m~\lcs ohiclly. Arter making (lighty-four miles, they encamped among some ash and elm trcrs on the right. rrhey, however, rather passed tlte night than slt.·pt ihet·e, for the mus<Juitoes we~·e so troublesome, that scarcely any of the I>arty oould close their eyes during Oae g•·eatcr part of the tirue. They therefore set out cal'ly in the mot•ning, Tuestlay, 3, to avoid thl' IH'rsecution of those insects. At the distance of two miles they passed Fields's creel\, a stream thht)"-five yards wide, which enters on the right, immediately above a high blufl~ which is rapidly sinking into tbc t·iver. IIE're captain Clarke went ashoa·e in put·suit of some bighorns, but the musquitocs wct·e so numea·ous, that l1e was unable to shoot with certainty. Ile therefol'o t•ctur ·ncd to the canoes; aml soon al'tcr oiH;erving a ram ol' the same animals, sent one of the buntet·s, who shot it, and it wa~ prciervcd entire as a specimen. About two o'clock th<'y reached, eight miles below Fields's creek, the junction of the Ycltowstonc \Vith tho Missom·i, and formed a (•amp on the point Where they had encam11ed on the 26th of April, 1805. rfhe canoes were now unloaded, an•l the baggage exposed to dry, as many of the articles were wet, and some of them spoiJed. 'I he Rochejaune, or Yellowstone t·ivcr, ac.cot·ding to In· dian infurmation, has its remote sources in the Rocky moun· tains, ncar the peaks of the Uio del Nortle, on the confines of New 1\'lexico, to which countJ·y there is a good road during the \Vhole cJistanee along the banks of the Yellowstone. Its "estern waters al'c probably connected with those ofLcwists river, while the eastern bl·anchcs approach the heads of Clarke's river, the Bighorn, and tha l,latte; oo that it waters the middle portion or the Uocky mountains for several hun· dred miles from northwest to southeasf. During its whole course from the poiut at which ea1>tain Clarke roachetl it to the Miisouri, a distance which he computed at eight hun· dred and thi1·ty-seven miles, this river is lat·go and naviga· UJJ Lite .7Uissotwi. 397 hle for pc1'iogncs, nnd even balteaux, there lJeing none of the moving sa.ndbaJ'S '\ hieh impede the navigation or the MisSOlll'i, anti only a single ktl;•·c or rucks, whieh, howeve~·, i~ not t.lifllcult to pass. E'en its tributa.1·y wa.tet·s, tlu• Bighorn, Chulw's for·k, and Tou~ue river. may be as<',enclcd in buats fo1• a considtwaulc distam~e. The uanl\.s of the river arc low, }Jut bold, a.nu uo wlu·t·c suhjecf to he ovcl'flowcd, f"Xcept for a shoa·t tlistanN' bdow the mountains. 'l'ht· prPdominating (',olour or the river is a yrllowish-bt·own; that of the l\1issoul'i, which possesses more mud, is of a deep dt·ah colont·; the IJed of the fot•mcr being dlidl) COllll)OSCU ol' loose {lCbble; which, however, dinainish in 11izc in descending the t·ivm·, till after passiug tlac Lazeka. the pchble cea.sc as the rivet• widens, and the mud and sautl lWnt inue to fo~·m tlu~ greater pat·t of the bottom. Ove1· these the water lluws with a velocity l'onstantly nml almost N{ltally d ·<wcasiug in l'roportiou to its distance f1·om the mountains. Ft·om the mountains to Clarke's fol'l~, the cua•rent may be estimated at four and a half miles pet' houa·; thence as Jow as the llighoru, at three and a halfuailcs; between that and the Lazeka at three miles; and from that l'iver to the \YoU' rapid, at two and tht·ec qual'tcr miles; fa·om which to its cntl'ance, the general ra{lidity is two miles per houa·. 'l'Jw appcat·ancc ancl charaetct• of the countl'y pl'Csent nearly imihn· val'ictics of fertile, rich, open lands. Above Clarke's J'ol'k, it consists of l1igh waving plain. h01:dered by stony hills, pat·tialJy supplied wHh pine; the ntiddle }lOrtiou, as low as the Buflaloc shoals, contains less timucr, and the numbca· tliminishcs still lower, where the rivet• witlcns, and the country s1weads itself inLo ext,msiYc plains. Like all the bt·anchcs of the Missouri which peuftratc the Uol'l{y mountains, the Yellowstone and ·ts streams, within that district of country beyond Clarke's l(wk, abound in bcavct• and oU.c1·; <t circumstance which strongly recommends the cntJ•ance of the h'ttel' river as a jutlieious position for the purposes of trade. To an establisbmqat at tllat pla<:ee' tho Shosk.ollocs, both within and west- |