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Show 180 Lewis and Clm·ke's Expedition ed and smoked a short time with them, and then pt•oceedrd on tl1rough handsome plains on each side of the river, and encamped at the distance of twenJy-thrce and a half miles on tbe north side: the day was eJear and I>1cas~mt, the wind hig·h fa·om the south, but aftenvards changed to a western steady bt·ceze. 'I'he bluffs which we passed to*day are upll'ards of one hundred feet high, t'Otn}>os~d of a mixture of yellow clay and sand, with many hot·izontal strata of carbonated wood resembling pit-coal, from one to five feet in depth, and scattered through the bluff at different eleva. tions, some as laigh as eighty feet above the water: the hills along the river arc broken, and present every appearance of having been burned at some former period; great quantities of tmmicestone and lava or rather earth, which seems to have been boiled and then hardened by exposure, being seen in many pat·ts of these hills where they are broken and washed down into gullies by the rain and meltin; snow. A great number of' brants pass up the river: there are some of them perfectly white, except the la•·ge feathers of the first and second joint of the wing w hieh are black, though in e,·et·y other characteristic they resemble com~ mon gray brant: we also saw but could not procure an animal that burrows in the gt•otmd, and simiJ~u· in every resJlCCt to the burrowing squil'I'cl, except that it is only one third of its size. 'rhis may be the animal whose wot·ks we have often seen in the ttlains and prairies; they t•csemble the Ia~ hours of the salamander in the sand hills of South (.;at·oliua and Georgia, and like him, the animals rarely come above ground; they consist of a little hillock of ten or twelve pounds of loose ground which would seem to have been rc; cried ft•om a pot, though no aperture is seen through wbicb lt cou~d have been thrown: on removing gently the earth, you dtscovet• that the soil has been broken in a circle ot' about an inch. and a half diameter, 'vherc the ground is loo· ser t~ough still no opening is perceptiiJie. When we stopped for dmner the squaw went out, and after penetrating. with Up tlte Missow·i. 181 -a sharp stick the holes of the mice, near some d1•ift wood, brought to us a quantity of wild artichokes, which the mice collect ami hoard in large numbers; the root is white, of an ovate form, ft•om one to three inches. long, and gcneralJy of the size of a man's finger, and two, four, and sometimes six r·oots are attached to a single stalk. Jts fiavout• as wdl as the stalk which i ssues from it resemble those of the Jcrusa· lcm artichoke, except that the latter is much larger. A large beavct• was caught in a trap last uight, and the mus. quitoes begin to tl'Guble us. Wednesday 10. 'Ve again set off early with clear plea. sant weather, and halted about ten lor breakfast, above a sandbank which was faiJing in, and near a small willow island. On both sides of the ~fissouri, after ascending the hills near the water, one fertile unbroken plain extends itself as far as tl1e eye can r~ach, without a solitaJ'Y tree or shrub, except in moist situations or in the steep declivities of hills wher·e they are sheltered from the ravages of fire. At the distance of twelve miles we reached the lower point of a bluff on the south; which is in some paJ:ts on fir·e and thr·ows out fJUantities of smoke which has a strong sulphurous smell, the coal ami other appearances in the bluffs being like those described yesterday: at one o'clock we overtook thl'ee Frenchmen who left the fort a few days before us, in order to make the first attempt ou tltis river of hunting beaver, which they do by means of tr·aps: their efforts promise to be successful fot• th<>y J1ave ~tlrcady caught twelve which at·c fln~r than auy we have ever seen: they mean to accompany us as far as the Yellowstone river in order to obtain our protection against the Assiniboins who might attack them. In the evening we encamped on a willow point to the south opposite to a bluff, abol'e which a small creek falls in, and just above a remarkable bend in the river to the souuthwcst, which we called the Little Dasin. 'l.'he low grounds which we passed to-day possess mor·e timber than is usual, aml are wider; the current is mode· |