soon reached the point where the Tansy river approaches the Missouri, and observing a large herd of elk before them, descended and killed several, which they hung up along the river so that the party in the boats might see them as they came along. They then halted for dinner; but Captain Lewis, who had been for some days afflicted with the dysentery, was now attacked with violent pains attended by a high fever, and was unable to go on. He therefore encamped for the night under some willow boughs; having brought no medicine, he determined to try an experiment with the small twigs of the chokecherry, which, being stripped of their leaves and cut into pieces about two inches long, were boiled in pure water, till they produced a strong black decoction of an astringent bitter taste; a pint of this he took at sunset, and repeated the dose an hour afterwards. By ten o'clock he was perfectly relieved from pain, a gentle perspiration ensued, his fever abated, and in the morning he was quite recovered. One of the men caught several dozen fish of two species: the first is about nine inches long, of a white colour, round in shape; the mouth is beset both above and below with a rim of fine sharp teeth, the eye moderately large, the pupil dark, and the iris narrow and of a yellowish brown colour; in form and size it resembles the white chub of the Potomac, though its head is proportionably smaller; they readily bite at meat or grasshoppers; but the flesh, though soft and of a fine white colour, is not highly flavoured. The second species is precisely of the form and about the size of the fish known by the name of the hickory shad or old wife, though it differs from it in having the outer edge of both the upper and lower jaw set with a rim of teeth, and the tongue and palate also are defended by long sharp teeth bending inwards; the eye is very large, the iris wide and of a silvery colour; they do not inhabit muddy water, and the flavour is much superior to

that of the former species. Of the first kind we had seen a few before we reached Maria's river; but had found none of the last before we caught them in the Missouri above its junction with that river. The white cat continues as high as Maria's river, but they are scarce in this part of the river, nor have we caught any of them since leaving the Mandans which weighed more than six pounds.

Of other game they saw a great abundance, even in their short march of nine miles.

Wednesday, 12th. This morning Captain Lewis left the bank of the river, in order to avoid the steep ravines which generally run from the shore to the distance of one or two miles in the plain; having reached the opened country, he went for twelve miles in a course a little to the west of southwest, when, the sun becoming warm by nine o'clock, he returned to the river in quest of water and to kill something for breakfast, there being no water in the plain, and the buffaloe, discovering them before they came within gunshot, took to flight. They reached the banks, in a handsome open low ground with cottonwood, after three miles walk. Here they saw two large brown bears, and killed them both at the first fire, a circumstance which has never before occurred since we have seen that animal. Having made a meal of a part and hung the remainder on a tree, with a note for Captain Clark, they again ascended the bluffs into the open plains. Here they saw great numbers of the burrowing squirrel, also some wolves, antelopes, mule-deer, and vast herds of buffaloe. They soon crossed a ridge considerably higher than the surrounding plains, and from its top had a beautiful view of the Rocky mountains, which are now completely covered with snow; their general course is from southeast to the north of northwest, and they seem to consist of several ranges which successively rise above each other till the most distant mingles

with the clouds. After travelling twelve miles they again met the river, where there was a handsome plain of cottonwood; and although it was not sunset, and they had only come twenty-seven miles, yet Captain Lewis felt weak from his late disorder, and therefore determined to go no farther that night. In the course of the day they killed a quantity of game, and saw some signs of otter, as well as beaver, and many tracks of the brown bear; they also caught great quantities of the white fish mentioned yesterday. With the broadleafed cottonwood, which has formed the principal timber of the Missouri, is here mixed another species, differing from the first only in the narrowness of its leaf and the greater thickness of its bark. The leaf is long, oval, acutely pointed, about two and a half or three inches long and from threequarters of an inch to an inch in width; it is smooth and thick, sometimes slightly grooved or channeled, with the margin a little serrate, the upper disk of a common, the lower of a whitish, green. This species seems to be preferred by the beaver to the broad-leaved, probably because the former affords a deeper and softer bark.

Thursday, 13th. They left their encampment at sunrise, and ascending the river hills went for six miles in a course generally southwest, over a country which, though more waving than that of yesterday, may still be considered level. At the extremity of this course they overlooked a most beautiful plain, where were infinitely more buffaloe than we had ever before seen at a single view. To the southwest arose from the plain two mountains of a singular appearance, and more like ramparts of high fortifications than works of nature. They are square figures with sides rising perpendicularly to the height of two hundred and fifty feet, formed of yellow clay, and the tops seemed to be level plains. Finding that the river here bore considerably to the south, and fearful of