History of the expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky mountains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean : performed during the years 1804-5-6 by order of the government of the United States; Volume 1

Page 112

1B:i. discern fr·om the hills between the two rivers about three miles ti·nm their junction, the country is much broken, the soil consisting of a deep rich dark coloured loam, inter­mixed with a small proportion of fine sand and covered generally with a short grass resembling blue grass. In its colour, the natut·c of Hs bed, and its genct·al appearance, it resembles so much the Missouri as to in•luce a. belief that the countries tlH·y water are simila•· in point of soil. From tlae }landau villages to this place the country is hi1Jy and il·rcgular, with th e same appearance of glauber salts and carbonated wood, the low grounds smootl1, sandy, and par­tially covered with cottonwood and small ash; at some dis­tance back thet·e are extensive }>lains of a good soil, but without timber or water. We found great quantities of small onions which grow single, the lmlb of an oval form, white, about the size or a bullet with a leaf resembling that of the shivc. On the side of a neighbouring hill, there is a species of dwarf cedar: it spreads its limbs along the sut·face of the earth, which it almost conceals by its closeness and thickness, and is some­times covered by it, having always a number of roots on the umJer side, while on the UI>per are a quantity of shoots which with theh· leaves seldom ri se highet• than six or eight inch­es; it is an evergreen, its leaf more delicate than that of the common cedar, though the taste and smell is the same. The country around has been so recently hunted that the game are extremely shy, so that a white rabbit, two bea­ver, a deer, and a bald eagle were all that we could procure. The weather had been elea1·, warm, and pleasant in the morning, but about three we had a squall of high wind and rain with some thunder, which lasted till after sunset when it again cleared off. Saturday 18. We set out at sunrise, and at nine o'clock having the wind in our favout• went on rapidly past a timbered low ga·ound on the south, and a creek on the north at the distance of nine miles, which we ealled Onion creek, from Up the JJiissozo·i. the quantity of that plant which ga·ows in the J)lains ncar it ~ this creek is about sixteen yat·tls wide at a mile and a half above its moutlt, H discharges more watc1• than jc; usual for creeks of that size in this (lountry, hut the whole plain which it waters is totally destitute of timber. The .Missouri Hself widens very J•emarli:ably just above the junction with the Little Missouri: immediatel.y at the cntt·ance of the lat-tcr!' it is not more than two hundred yards wide, and so shal-low that it may be llassed in canoes wil h setting poles, while a few miles above it is upwards of a mile in width: ien miles beyond Onion creek we came to anothel', di scb~u·ging itself on the uorth in the centt·c of a deep bend: on ascending it fot• about a mile and a half, we funnd it to be the di scharge of a pond or small Jake, whieh seemed to luwc been once the bed of the Missouri: ncar this lake were the remains of' forty-three temporary lodges which seem to belong to the Assiniboins, wJw arc now on the ri·rcr or the same name. A great number of swan and geese wcl'c also iu it, and ft·om this circumstance we named the CI'Cek Goose creek, and the lake by the same name: these geese \\ c obsc1'rc do not build their nests on the ground ot• in saudbat·s, but in the tops of lofty cottonwood trees: we saw some elk and buffa­loc to-day but at too great a distance to obtain any of tbem, though a number of the carcases of the latter animal are strewed along the shore, having fallen through the ice, and been swept along when the river broke up. l\'Iot•e bald eagles are seen on this llart of the l'Iissouri than we have previ­ously met \\'ith; the small_ or common hawk, common in most parts of the United States, are also fouud he1·c: gr·cat quantities of geese are feeding in the pt·aiJ·ies, ami one Hock of white brant or geese with black wings, aud some gl'ay brant with them pass up the river, and f'l'om their flight they seem to pl'oceed much fhrther to the nurtln\> cst. ' 'fe killed two antelopes which were vm·y lean, and caught Jast night. two heaver: the I1'rcnch hunters who had procu•·ed seven, thinking the neighbourhood of the Little 1\'li siourj a VeJu I. B h