OCR Text |
Show so Lewis and Clarke's Expedition with frequent fires, and with no timber, except the scattering trees about the sources of the runs, which ar'e nume. rous and fine. On the north, is a similar prairie country. 'l'he river continues to fall. A large yellow wolf was this day killed. For a month past the party have been troubled with biles, and occasionally with the dyscnter·y. These biles were large tumour·s which broke out under the arms, on the legs, and, generally, in the parts most exposed to action, which sometimes became too painful to permit the men to \vork. Arter remaining some days, they disappear·cd with· out any assistance, except a poultice or the bark of the elm, or of Indian meal. This disorder, which we ascribe to the muddiness of the river water, has not affected the general health of the pa1·ty, which is quite as good, if not better, than that of the same number of men in any other situation. Saturday, July 21. We had a breeze f1•om the southeast, by the aid of which we passed, at about ten miles, a willow island on the south, near high lands covered with timber, at tbe bank, and formed of limestone with cemented shells; on the opposite side is a bad sandbar, and the land near it is cut through at bigh water, hy small channels forming a number of islands. 'rhe wind lulled at seven o'clock, and we reached, in the rain, the mouth of the great river Platte, at the distance of fourteen miles. 'rhe highlands which bad accompanied us on the south, for the last eight or ten miles, stopped at about three (}Darters of a mile from the entrance of the I>Jatte. Cat>tains Lewis and Clarke ascended the river in a periogue, for about one mile, and found the current Vei'Y rapid; rolling over sands, and divided into a number of channels; none of which are deeper than five or six feet. One of our Frenchmen, who spent two winters on it, says that it spreads much more at some distance from the mouth; that its depth is generally not more than five or six feet; that there arc many small islands scatterctl through it, and that from its rapidity and the quantity ol' its sand, it eannot be navigated by boats or periogues, though the In- • Up the .Missouri. 81 «lians pass it in small fiat canoes made of hitles. That the Saline or· Salt river. which in some seasons is too brackish to be drank, falls into it from the south about thirty miles up, and a little above it Elkhorn river from the north, running near· ly parallel with the :Missouri. 'l'he l'iver is, in fact, much more rapid than the Missouri, the bed of which it fills with moving sands, and drives the current on the northern shore, on which it is constantly encroaching. At its junction the Platte is about six hundred yards wide, and the same number of miles from the Mississippi. With much difficulty wo worked round the sandbars ncar the mouth, and came to above the point, having made fifteen miles. A number of wolves were seen and heard around us in the evening. July 22. The next morning we set sail, and having found at the distance of ten miles from the Platte, a high and shaded situation on the north, we encamped there, intending to make the requisite observations, and to send for the neighbouring t1·ibes, for the purllose of making known the re~ent change in the government, and the wish of the United States to cultivate their friendship. |