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Show POISON VINE----WEEPING WATER CREEK----ISCHTA MASO. 127 black snake with them; one of them had broken off a piece of a poison vine, by which his face and hands were much swollen; but the people here do not much mind such accidents, though the swelling frequently lasts many days. The 1st of May set in with rain and a clouded sky ; the forests were dripping wet; during the night we had observed some fireflies. Numerous flocks of two kinds of swallows passed us, flying to the north. About noon a white cat-fish was caught by one of the lines which we had thrown out; a second broke the strong line as we were drawing it up. The first we had caught weighed sixty pounds, and we soon took another weighing sixty-five pounds, and a third weighing 100 lbs, in the jaws of which was the hook of the line that had been broken. In the stomach of this and the other cat-fish were found large pieces of pork, the bones of fowls, &c, feet of geese, all refuse from the vessels ; and likewise the entire gills of another large fish. A great number of leeches were attached to the gills of these fish. It is only on the Upper Missouri that this fish attains so large a size. On the following morning the Missouri had risen a little. In the neighbouring thickets some birds were singing, or rather twittering, and there was nothing like the loud concert which, at this season of the year, animates the European forests. The Yellow Stone did not set out till near eleven o'clock. In the afternoon we came to some almost perpendicular hills on the bank, the base of which consisted of violet, the middle of bluish grey, the upper part of yellow red clay. In some places a whole colony of swallows had built against them. About the place where Weeping-water Creek opens, among beautiful thickets, before the green hills of the prairies, we met with great obstructions, and were several times obliged to put the vessel back. We reached Five Barrel Islands, in a broad part of the river, just when the evening sun gave a peculiar charm to the verdant landscape. The forest was picturesque but not very lofty ; the bird cherry was in flower, but the blossoms of the red bud had lost their bright colour. Vines twined round the trunks of the trees, and the numerous blossoms of the phlox formed blue spots amongst the rocks. Towards night we met a canoe, with two persons on board, one of whom was M. Fontenelle, clerk to the Fur Company, who resided near at hand at Belle Vue. He was a man who had much experience in the trade with the Indians, and had often visited the Rocky Mountains. As he was shortly to undertake an expedition to the mountains, with a body of armed men, he turned back with us. Early on the morning of the 3rd of May, we came to the hill called by the Otos and Omahas-Ischta Maso, or Ischta Manso (the iron eye). It is rather higher than the neighbouring hills, and a small stream of the same name runs from its side into the Missouri. We were now near the mouth of La Platte River. Four or five miles before you come to the conflux, you distinguish the water of the two rivers by their colour, that of the La Platte being clear and green, and keeping unmixed on the western bank. A mile further up, the water was covered with foam, in |