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 122

·there being in fact none to-day. At the distance of fourteen miles we reached the mouth of a river on the north, which from the unusua.l number of porcupines nt.~ ar it, we called Porcupine river. 'rhis is a bold and beautiful stream one hundred and twelve yards wide, though the water is only forty yards at its entrance: captain Clarke who ascended it several miles and passed it above where it enters the high­lands, found it continued nearly of the same width and about knee deep, and as far as he could distinguish for twenty miles from the hills, its course was from a little to tho east of north. There was much timber on the low grounds: he found some limestone also on the surface of the earth in the course of his walk, and saw a range of low mountains at a distance to the west of north, whose direction was northwest; the adjoining country being every where level, fet•tile, OlJen, and exceedingly beautiful. The watet• of this river is transparent, and is the only one that is so of all those thai fall into the Missouri: before entering a large sandbar through which it discharges itself, its low grounds are formed of a stiff blue and black clay, and its banks which are ~rom eight to ten feet high and seldom if ever overflow are composed of the same materials. From the quantity of water which this river contains, its direction, and the na­ture of the country through which it passes, it is not im­probable that its sources may be near the main body of the Saskaskawan, and as in high watet• it can be no doubt navi­gated to a considerable distance, it may be rendered the means of intercourse with the Athabasky country, from which tho northwest company derive so many of their valua­ble furs. A quarter of a mile beyond this river a creek fa1ls in on the south, to which on account of its distance from the mouth of the Missouri, we gave· it the name of Two-thousand mile creek: it is a bold stream with a bed thirty yards wide. 'l,hree miles and a half above Porcupine river we reached some high timber on the north, and encamped just above an Up tlte Missouri. old channel of the river, which is now dry. We saw vast quantities of buffaloe, elk, deer, principally of the long tail­ed kind, antelopes, beaver, geese, ducks, brant, and some swan. The porcupines too are numerous, and so careless and clumsy that we can approach very near wit11out disturbing thorn as they are feeding on the young willows; towards evening we also found for the first time, the nest of a goose among some driftwood, all that we have hitherto seen be­ing on the top of a broken tree on the forks, and invat•iably from fifteen to twenty feet or more in height. Saturday ~. We were detained till nine in order to repair the rudder of one of the boats, and when we set out the wind was ahead; at six and a half miles we passed a small creek in a deep bend on the south with a sand island opposite to it, and then passing along an extensive plain which graduaiJy rises from the north side of the river, encamped at the dis­tance of eighteen miles in a point of woodland on the north: the river is tlus day wider than usual, and crowded with sandbars on all sides: the country is level, fertile, and beau­tiful, the low grounds extensive and contain a much greater portion of timber than is common: indeed all the forepart of the day the river was bordered with timber on both sides, a circumstance ve1·y 1·are on the ~1issouri, aml the :first that has occurred since we left the Mandans. 'I'here arc as usual vast quantities of game, and extremely gentle; the male buifaloe particularly will scarcely give way to us, and as we approach will merely look at us for a moment, as something new, and then quietly J•esume their feeding. In the course of tlle day we passed some old Indian Jmnting camps, one of which consisted of two large lodges fortified with a circular fence, twenty or thirty feet in diameter, and made of timber laid hm·izontal1y, the beams overlaying each other to the height of five feet, and covered with the trunks and limbs of ti·ees that have drifted down the river: the lodges themselves are formed by three or more strong sticks about the size of a man's leg or arm, and twelve feet long,