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Show 190 Lewis and Clcwke' s EXJ.1CdLtio n greater part of the course. At ten and three quarter mile ~ we passed a creek ten yards wide on the south; at cightern n1iles a little run on the north, and at night encamped in a woody point on the south. We had travelled twenty-six miles througb a country similar to that of yesterday, except that there were greater appearances of burnt hills, furnish ing large quantities of lava and pumiccstone, of the last or which we observe some pieces floating down the river, as we had previously done, as low as the LiUle Missouri. In all the copses of wood a.re the remains of the Assiniboin encampments; around us are gt•eat quantities of game, such as herds of buffaloe, elk, anlelopes, some deer and wolves, the tracks of bears, a curlue was also seen, and we obtained three beaver, the flesh of which is more r elished by the men than any other food which we ltave. Just before we encamped we saw some tracks of Indians, who had passed twentyfour hours before, and left four rafts, and whom we supposed to be a band of Assiniboins on their return from war against the Indians on the Rocky mountains. Thursday 18. We had again a p1easant day, and proeeeded on with a westerly wind, which however changed toN. W. and blew so hard that we were obJiged to stop at one o'clock and remain four hours, when it abated and we then continued our course. . We enc~mped about dark on a woody bank having made thirteen miles. The country presented the usual variety of highlands interspersed with rich plains. In one of these ~ve obs~rved a species of pea bearing a yellow flower, which Is now m blossom, the leaf and stalk t•esembling the common pea. It seldom rises higher than six inches, and the r~ot is peren?ial. On the rose bushes we also saw a quantity of the ha1r of the buffaloe, \V hich had become perfectly \Vhite by exposure, and resembled the wool of the sheep, except that it was much finer and more soft and silliy. A buffaloe which we killed yesterday had shed his long hair, and that which remained was about two inches long, tl.tick, Yp the .,1Jlissom·i. 191 tine, and would have fur11i shed five pounds of wool, of which we have no doubt an excellent cloth may be made. Our game to-day was a beaver, a deer, an elk, and some geese. 'I'he r iver has been crooked all day and bearing towards tl1e south. On the bjlls we obset·vcd considerable quantities of dwarf juniper, which seldom g rows higl1cr than three feet. We ldlJed in the course of the day an elk, three geese and a beaver. 'I'he IJea\'er on this part of' the Missouri are in greater quantities, laJ·ger and fatter, and their fur is more abundant and o{' a darker colour than any we had hitherto seen: their favourite food seems to be the bark of the cottonwood and willow, as we lmve scen no other species of tree tha t has been touched by them, and these they gnaw to the gt•otmd tln·ough a diameter of twenty inches. The next day, F r iday, 19th, the wind was so high from northwest that we could not proceed, but being less violent on Saturday, 20th, we set off about seven o'clock, and had nearly lost one of the canoes as we left the shore, by the falling in of a large part of the bank. The wind too became again so stroug that we could scarcely make one mile an hour, and the sudden squalls so dangerous to the small boats, that we f.ltopped for the night among some wH~ laws on the north, not being able to advance more than six and a half miles. In walking through the neighbouring plains we found a fine fertile soil covered with cottonwood, some box, alder, ash, red elm, and an undergrowth of willow, rosebushes, honeysuckle, r ed wi1low, gooseberry, currant, and servieebet·ries, and along the foot of the hiJis great quantities of hysop. Our hunters Jll'ocured elk and deer which at·e now lean, and six beaver· which are fatter and more palatable. Along the plain the1·c were also some Imlian camps; near one of these was a scaffold about seven feet high, on which were two sleds with their hm·ness, and UJldet· it the body of a female, carefully wra1)ped in seYerai |