[167] Lewis and Clark applied the name "Bald Hills" to "the ridge of naked hills" here described, and "Bald-pated Prairie" to the low lands at their base.—Ed.
[168] Lewis and Clarke, vol. i. p. 28.—James.
Comment by Ed. The reference is to Biddle's History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark to the Sources of the Missouri, etc. (Philadelphia, 1814). See also Thwaites, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (New York, 1904).
[169] This velocity of current is equalled by that of the Cassiquiare in South America, and probably surpassed by the Oronoko, the average descent of whose bed is thirteen inches to the mile of 950 toises (6 feet 4.376 inches per toise). See Humb. Pers. Nar. vol. v. p. 637, and vol. iv. p. 452. La Condamine and Major Rennel suppose the mean descent of the Amazon and the Ganges, scarce four or five inches to the mile, which is about equal to that of the Mississippi, according to the most satisfactory estimates we have been able to make.—James.
[170] Platte River (sometimes called Flatwater and Nebraska, all three names having the same meaning) is the largest tributary of the Missouri. It joins the latter between Sarpy and Cass counties, Nebraska, 640.8 miles from the Mississippi. Its mouth is taken as the line between the "upper" and "lower" Missouri.—Ed.
[171] Species of apios, the glycine of Lin.—James.
[172] See Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, note 40.—Ed.
[173] The Mosquito is on the Iowa side, in Pottawatomie County, its mouth being a few miles below Council Bluffs.
For the Oto Indians, Missouri Fur Company, and Manuel Lisa, see Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, notes 42, 149, 64 respectively. Lisa established the post named for him, in 1812, and for a decade it was the most important trading station on the Missouri. It stood about twenty miles above the present town of Council Bluffs (Iowa), on the opposite side of the river.—Ed.
Footnotes to Chapter VIII: