| OCR Text |
Show Lewi1 cuul Cla1·1~e's E31'edition We find the prickly pear·. one of the ga·ratest beau .. ties ai well as the greatest inconYeniences of the plams, now in full bloom. The sunflower too, a plant common on every part of the Missouri from its entrance to this place, ii here very abundant and in bloom. 'rhe lambsquarter, wild-cucumber, sandr·ush, and narrowdock are also common. Two elk, a deer, and an otter, were our game to-day. The river l1as now become so much more crooked than below that we omit taking all its short meanders, but note only its general course. and lay down ~he small bends on our daily chart by the eye. The general widtb is fr·om oue hundred to one hundred and fifty yards. Along the banks are large beds of sand raised above tlae plains, and as they always ap~ca1· on the sides of the river opposite to the southwest exposure, seem obviously brougJit thca·e from the channel of the river by the incessant winds from that quarter: we find alio more timber than for a great distance below the fa11s. Tuesday 16. 'l,here was a heavy dew Jast night. )Ye soon passed about forty little booth , formed of willow bushes as a shelter against the sun. These seemed to have been deserted about ten days, and as we supposed by tl1e Snake Indians, or Shoshonees, whom we hope soon to meet, as they appeared from the tracks to have a numller ot' ho1·ses with them. At three and three quarter miles we passed a creek or run in a bend on the left side, and four miles further another run or small rivulet on the right. After breakfasting on a buffaloe shot by one of the hunters, ca~tain Lewis t·csolvcd to go on ahead of the party to the pomt where the r·iver enters the Rocky mountains and make the necessary observations before our arrival. He therefore set out with Drewyer and two of the sick men to whom he supposed the walk would be useful: }Je trave11ed on the north side of the river throuoob a handsome level plain, which continued on the opposit: side also, and at th• Up the JtlissoU'l'i. distance of eight miles passed a small stream on which 1u~ observed a considerable quantity of the aspen tree. A little before twelve o'clock he halted on a bend to the north in a low ground wdl covered with timber, about four and a. half miles below the mountains, and obtained a meridian altitude, by which he found the latitmle was N. 46° 46' SO" !"'. llis route then lay through a high waving plain to a rapid whe1•e the Missotu·i first leaves the Rocky mountain~, and here he encamped for the night. In the meantime we had proceeded after breakfast one mile to a bend in the left, opposite to which was the fl'ame Gfa lal·ge lodge situated in the pr•airio, constructed like that already mentioned auove the \Vhitcbear islands. but only sixty feet in diameter: J'Ound it were the remains of about eighty leathern lodges, all which seemed to ltavc been built duriug the last autumn; \fithin the next .fifteen and a quarter miles we passed ten iilands, on the last of which we encamt>ed near the right shore, having made twentytbree miles. 'fhe next morning, Wednesday 17, we set out early, and at four miles distance joined ca1>tain Lewis at the foot of the rapids, and after breakfast began the l>assage of them: some of the articles mOit liable tft be injured by the water were carried t•ountl. We then double manned the canoes, and with the aid of the towing-line got them UJ) without accident. For several miles below the rapids the current of the Mis .. souri becomes stronger as you approacl1, and the spur~ of the mountain advance towards the river, which is deep and not more than seventy yards wide: at the ra])ids the river ii closely hemmed in on both sides by the hiJis, and foams for half a mile ovet• the rocks which obstruct its channel. The low grounds arc now not more than a few yards in width, but they furnish room for an Indian road which lVinds under the hills on the north side of the river. rrhe general range of these hills is from southrast to noa·thwest, and th~ cliffa~ themselves are about eight hundred feet above |
