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Show Lewis cuut Clarke's Expedition closely: its width is various: it contain~ m.a~y islands, and is known by the name of the Lac d'Esprit: It IS near tlle Dogplains, and within four days march of the Mahas. The ~~untry watered by it, is open ami undulating, and may b~ ~lsi ted jn boats up the river for some distance. 'fh~ Des~oH~es; he adds is about eighty yards wide where the L1ttle Sw-ux i'Ifet· appt~oaches it: it is shoaly, and one of its pL·~nci.pal ~ranches is called Cat l'iver. Two miles beyond tlus river IS a long island which we calletl Pelican island, from the numbers of that animal which were feeding on it: one of these being killed, we poured into his bag five gallons of water. An elk, too, was shot, and we bad again to remark that snakes are rare in this part of the Missouri. A meridian altitude near the Little Sioux river made the latitude 411° 42' 31/'. 'Ve en· camped on the north, having come sixteen miles. August 9. A thick. fog detained us until past seven o'clock, after which we proceeded with a gentle breeze from the southeast. After passing two sandbars we reached, at seven and a half miles, a point of highland on the left, neat• 1\'hich the river has forced itself a channel across a peninsula, leaving on the right a circuit of twelve or eighteen miles, which is now recognised by the ponds and islands it contains. At seventeen andahalfmiles, we reached a point on the north, ,vbeL·e we encamped. The hills are at a great distance from the river fot• the last several days; the land on both sides low, and covered with cottonwood and abundance of gt•ape vines. An elk was seen to-day, a turkey also shot, and ncar our camp is a beaver den: tl1e musquitoes l1ave been more trou· blesome than ever for the two last days. August 10. At two and a. half' miles, we came to a place, called Coupee a Jacques, where the river has found a new bed, and abt·jt.lged a circuit of several miles: at twelve and a half miles, a cliff of yellow stone on the left. 'rhis is tho first highland near the river above the Council-bluff. Af· tcr passing a number of sandbars we reached a willow island at the distance of twenty-two and a half miles, which 'vo Up the Missou1·i. vere enabled to do with our oars and a wind from tlte S. ,V. and encamped on the north side. August 11. After a violent wind from theN. W. attended with rain, we sailed along the right of the islam]. At nearly fiv~ ~i1es, we halted on the south side for the pur11ose of exammmg a spot where one of the great chiefs of the ~fahas named Blackbird, who died about four years ago of the smallpox, was buried. A bill of yellow !ioft sandstone rises from the river in bluffs of various heights, tjll it ends in a kn~ll about three hundt·ed feet above tl1e water; on the top of this a mound, of . hvclvc feet diameter at the base and six feet high, is raised over the body of the deceased king; a pole of about eight feet high is fixed in the centre; on which we placed a white flag, bordered with red, blue, and white. The Blackbir·d seems to have been a personage of great eonsideration; for ever since his death he is supplied with provisions, from time to time, by the suprrstitious regard or the Mahas. 'Ve descended to the river and passed a small creek on the south, called, by the ~1ahas, 'Vaucandipccchc, (Great Spirit is bad.) Neat· this creek and the adjoining hills the ~fahas hacl a village, and lost four hundrrd of their nation by the dreadful malady which destroyed the Blackbird. The meridian altitude made the latitude 42° 1' 31 8 0" north. \Vc encamped, at seventeen miles distance, on the north side jn a bend of the river. During om• day's course it has been crooked; we observed a number of places in it wlJere the old channclis filled up, or graduaiJy brcomiug covered with willow and cottonwood; great numbrrs of 1ll'1"1'011S are obser, ·ed to-day, and the musquitocs annoy us vct•y much. August 1Z. A gentle bl·cczc f1·om the south, carrietl u~ alon~ about ten miles, when we stopped to (akc a. mct·idm~ altJtude, and sent. a man across (o our J>lace of observation: yesterday he stcp11cd nine hunlll·cd and seventy-four y~rds, and the distance we uad come round, was cightcf'n miles and three quartet·s. The r h·ct· is witlc1· and shallowcL' than usual. Four miles hf'~·otul 01i" hrncl a hlulr lH'~in~. an~t |