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Show 91s Lewis attd Clarke's Exptd.itiou bar& which imprde 1he navigation. 'l'hc only animal which we observed was the white gull, then in great abundance. October tst, 180<i1. The weather was very cold and the wind high f1·om the southeast during the night, and continuell so this morning. At three miles distance, we had passed a large island in the milldle of the rive1·, opposite to the lower cud of which the Ricaras once ltad a village on the south side of the river: there are, however, no remnants of it now, except a circular wall three or four feet in height, " 'hich encompassed the town. rrwo miles beyond this island is a rhrer coming in from the southwest, about four bun .. drcd yards wide; the current gentle, and discharging not much water, and very little sand: it takes its rise in the sccoud range of the Cote Noh·c or Black mountains, and its general course is nearly east: this ri vcr has been occasionally . called Dog river, under a mistaken opinion that its French name was Chien, but its true appellation is Chayennc, and it derives this title ft·om the Chaycnne Indians: their history is the short aml melancholy relation of the calamities of almost all the Indians. They were a numerous people and lived on the Chayennet a bt·anch of the Red river of Lake Winnitleg. The invasion of the Sioux drove them ''cstward; in theh· progress they halted on the southern side of the Missouri below the \Varreconne, where their ancient fortifications still exist; but the same impulse again drove them to the heads of the Chayenne, where they now rove, and occasionally visit the Ricaras. rrhey arc now reduced, but still number three hundred mt>n. Although the river did not seem to throw out much sand, yet neat• and aboYe its mouth we find a great many sandbars difficult to l'ass. On both sides of the Mis· souri, ncar the Chayenne, are rich thinly timbered low· lands, behind which are bare hills. As we I>roceeded, we found that the sandiJars made the river so shallow, and the wind was so high, that ''e could scat•cely find the eban· nel, and at one place were fereed to drag the boat over a " Up t11e .Missow·i. 95 s:mdbar, the Missouri being very wide and falling a little. At seven and a half miles we came to at a pom· t , and re-mained three hours, during wJ1ich time the wind abated: we the~ pa~sed within four miles two creeks on the south, one of winch we called Centinel creek, and the other Lookout creek. This part of the river has but little timber; the hills are not so high as we have hithet•to seen, and the number of sandbars extends the river to more than a mile in breadth. \Ve continued about four and a half miles further, to a sandiJar in the middle of the t•ivcr wh ere we spent the m. ght, our }ll'Ogress being sixteen miles.' On the Ollposite shore, we saw a house among the willows and a boy, to whom we eallcd, and brought him on boat·d. He IWoved to be a young }"rcnchman in tLe employ of a ~1r. Valle a trader, who is now here pursuing his commerce with the Sioux. Tuesday, October 2. There had been a violent wind from the S. E. during the night, which having moderated we set sail with M1·. Valle, who visited us this morninoo and accom1lanied us for two miles. He is one of three F:ench traders who have baited here, expecting the Sioux who are coming down from the Ricaras, where they now are, for the 1mrposes of traffic. ~ir. Valle tells us that he passed the last winter three hundred leagues Uil the Chaycnne under the Black mountains. rrhat river he rein·esents as very rapid, liable to sudden swells, the bed and shores formed or coarse gravel, and difficult of ascent even tor canoes. One hundred leagues f1·om its mouth it divides into two brancllcs, one coming from the south, the other at forty leagues from the junction enters the Black mountains. 'fbe laud \Vhieh it waters from the }1issouri to the Black mountains, resembles ihe country on the Missouri, except that the for~ er ~as even less timber, and of that the gl'eater proiJOrtlon Js cedar. 'l'he Chayennes reside chie11y on the beads of the river, ~nd steal horses from the Spanish settlement, a. phtoderiu; excursion whioh they perform in a month's |