Wednesday, 12, we left our encampment with a fair day and a southwest wind. The river was now so crowded with islands that within the distance of ten miles and a half we passed eleven of different dimensions before reaching a high black bluff in a bend on the left, where we saw a great number of swallows. Within one mile and a half farther we passed four small islands, two on each side, and at fifteen miles from our encampment reached a spring which the men called Grog spring: it is on the northern shore, and at the point where Tansy river approaches within one hundred yards of the Missouri. From this place we proceeded three miles to a low bluff on the north opposite to an island, and spent the night in an old Indian encampment. The bluffs under which we passed were composed of a blackish clay and coal for about eighty feet, above which for thirty or forty feet is a brownish yellow earth. The river is very rapid and obstructed by bars of gravel and stone of different shapes and sizes, so that three of our canoes were in great danger in the course of the day. We had a few drops of rain about two o'clock in the afternoon. The only animals we killed were elk and deer; but we saw great numbers of rattlesnakes.
Thursday, 13. The morning was fair and there was some dew on the ground. After passing two islands we reached at the distance of a mile and a half a small rapid stream fifty yards wide, emptying itself on the south, rising in a mountain to the southeast about twelve or fifteen miles distant, and at this time covered with snow. As it is the channel for the melted snow of that mountain we called it Snow river: opposite to its entrance is another island: at one mile and three quarters is a black bluff of slate on the south; nine miles beyond which, after passing ten islands, we came to on the southern shore near an old Indian fortified camp, opposite the lower point of an island, having made thirteen miles. The number of islands and shoals, the rapidity of the river, and the quantity of large stones, rendered the navigation very disagreeable: along the banks we distinguished several low bluffs or cliffs of slate. There were great numbers of geese and goslings; the geese not being able to fly at this season. Gooseberries are ripe and in great abundance; the yellow currant is also common, but not yet ripe. Our game consisted of buffaloe and goats.
Friday, 14. Again the day is fine. We made two miles to a small island in the southern bend, after passing several bad rapids. The current becomes indeed swifter as we ascend and the canoes frequently receive water as we drag them with difficulty along. At the distance of six miles we reached captain Clarke's camp on the fourth, which is on the north side and opposite to a large gravelly bar. Here the man sent by captain Lewis joined us with the pleasing intelligence that he had discovered the falls, and was convinced that the course we were pursuing was that of the true Missouri. At a mile and a half we reached the upper point of an island, three quarters of a mile beyond which we encamped on the south, after making only ten and a quarter miles. Along the river was but little timber, but much hard slate in the bluffs.
Saturday, 15. The morning being warm and fair we set out at the usual hour, but proceeded with great difficulty in consequence of the increased rapidity of the current. The channel is constantly obstructed by rocks and dangerous rapids. During the whole progress the men are in the water hauling the canoes, and walking on sharp rocks and round stones which cut their feet or cause them to fall. The rattlesnakes too are so numerous that the men are constantly on their guard against being bitten by them; yet they bear the fatigues with the most undiminished cheerfulness. We hear the roar of the falls very distinctly this morning. At three and three quarter miles we came to a rock in a bend to the south, resembling a tower. At six and three quarter miles we reached a large creek on the south, which after one of our men we called Shield's creek. It is rapid in its course, about thirty yards wide, and on sending a person five miles up it proved to have a fall of fifteen feet, and some timber on its low ground. Above this river the bluffs of the Missouri are of red earth mixed with stratas of black stone; below it we passed some white clay in the banks which mixes with water in every respect like flour. At three and three quarter miles we reached a point on the north opposite an island and a bluff; and one mile and a quarter further, after passing some red bluffs, came to on the north side, having made twelve miles. Here we found a rapid so difficult that we did not think proper to attempt the passage this evening, and therefore sent to captain Lewis to apprise him of our arrival. We saw a number of geese, ducks, crows, and blackbirds to-day, the two former with their young. The river rose a little this evening, but the timber is still so scarce that we could not procure enough for our use during the night.
Sunday, June 16. Some rain fell last night, and this morning the weather was cloudy and the wind high from the southwest. We passed the rapid by doubly manning the periogue and canoes, and halted at the distance of a mile and a quarter to examine the rapids above, which we found to be a continued succession of cascades as far as the view extended, which was about two miles. About a mile above where we halted was a large creek falling in on the south, opposite to which is a large sulphur spring falling over the rocks on the north: captain Lewis arrived at two from the falls about five miles above us, and after consulting upon the subject of the portage, we crossed the river and formed a camp on the north, having come three quarters of a mile to-day. From our own observation we had deemed the south side to be the most favourable for a portage, but two men sent out for the purpose of examining it, reported that the creek and the ravines intersected the plain so deeply that it was impossible to cross it. Captain Clarke therefore resolved to examine more minutely what was the best route: the four canoes were unloaded at the camp and then sent across the river, where by means of strong cords they were hauled over the first rapid, whence they may be easily drawn into the creek. Finding too, that the portage would be at all events too long to enable us to carry the boats on our shoulders, six men were set to work to make wheels for carriages to transport them. Since leaving Maria's river the wife of Chaboneau, our interpreter, has been dangerously ill, but she now found great relief from the mineral water of the sulphur spring. It is situated about two hundred yards from the Missouri, into which it empties over a precipice of rock about twenty-five feet high. The water is perfectly transparent, strongly impregnated with sulphur, and we suspect iron also, as the colour of the hills and bluffs in the neighbourhood indicates the presence of that metal. In short the water to all appearance is precisely similar to that of Bowyer's sulphur spring in Virginia.
Monday 17. Captain Clarke set out with five men to explore the country; the rest were employed in hunting, making wheels and in drawing the five canoes and all the baggage up the creek, which we now called Portage creek: from this creek there is a gradual ascent to the top of the high plain, while the bluffs of the creek lower down and of the Missouri, both above and below its entrance, were so steep as to have rendered it almost impracticable to drag them up from the Missouri. We found great difficulty and some danger in even ascending the creek thus far, in consequence of the rapids and rocks of the channel of the creek, which just above where we brought the canoes has a fall of five feet, and high and sleep bluffs beyond it: we were very fortunate in finding just below Portage creek a cottonwood tree about twenty-two inches in diameter, and large enough to make the carriage wheels; it was perhaps the only one of the same size within twenty miles; and the cottonwood, which we are obliged to employ in the other parts of the work, is extremely soft and brittle. The mast of the white periogue which we mean to leave behind, supplied us with two axletrees. There are vast quantities of buffaloe feeding in the plains or watering in the river, which is also strewed with the floating carcases and limbs of these animals. They go in large herds to water about the falls, and as all the passages to the river near that place are narrow and steep, the foremost are pressed into the river by the impatience of those behind. In this way we have seen ten or a dozen disappear over the falls in a few minutes. They afford excellent food for the wolves, bears, and birds of prey; and this circumstance may account for the reluctance of the bears to yield their dominion over the neighbourhood.
Tuesday 18. The periogue was drawn up a little below our camp and secured in a thick copse of willow bushes. We now began to form a cache or place of deposit and to dry our goods and other articles which required inspection. The wagons too are completed. Our hunters brought us ten deer, and we shot two out of a herd of buffaloe that came to water at the sulphur spring. There is a species of gooseberry growing abundantly among the rocks on the sides of the cliffs: it is now ripe, of a pale red colour, about the size of the common gooseberry, and like it is an ovate pericarp of soft pulp enveloping a number of small whitish coloured seeds, and consisting of a yellowish slimy mucilaginous substance, with a sweet taste; the surface of the berry is covered with a glutinous adhesive matter, and its fruit though ripe retains its withered corolla. The shrub itself seldom rises more than two feet high, is much branched, and has no thorns. The leaves resemble those of the common gooseberry except in being smaller, and the berry is supported by separate peduncles or footstalks half an inch long. There are also immense quantities of grasshoppers of a brown colour in the plains, and they no doubt contribute to the lowness of the grass, which is not generally more than three inches high, though it is soft, narrow-leafed and affords a fine pasture for the buffaloe.
Wednesday 19. The wind blew violently to-day, as it did yesterday, and as it does frequently in this open country, where there is not a tree to break or oppose its force. Some men were sent for the meat killed yesterday which fortunately had not been discovered by the wolves. Another party went to Medicine river in quest of elk, which we hope may be induced to resort there, from there being more wood in that neighborhood than on the Missouri. All the rest were occupied in packing the baggage and mending their moccasins, in order to prepare for the portage. We caught a number of the white fish, but no catfish or trout. Our poor Indian woman, who had recovered so far as to walk out, imprudently ate a quantity of the white apple, which with some dried fish occasioned a return of her fever.
The meridian altitude of the sun's lower limb, as observed with octant by back observation, was 53° 15', giving as the latitude of our camp, 47° 8' 59" 5"'.
Thursday 20. As we were desirous of getting meat enough to last us during the portage, so that the men might not be diverted from their labour to look for food, we sent out four hunters to-day: they killed eleven buffaloe. This was indeed an easy labour, for there are vast herds coming constantly to the opposite bank of the river to water; they seem also to make much use of the mineral water of the sulphur spring, but whether from choice, or because it is more convenient than the river, we cannot determine, as they sometimes pass near the spring and go on to the river. Besides this spring, brackish water or that of a dark colour impregnated with mineral salts, such as we have frequently met on the Missouri, may be found in small quantities in some of the steep ravines on the north side of the river opposite to us and at the falls.