CHAPTER XI.

Description and romantic appearance of the Missouri at the junction of the Medicine river - The difficulty of transporting the baggage at the falls The party

employed in the construction of a boat of skins — The embarrassments they had to encounter for want of proper materials — During the work the party much troubled by white bears -- Violent hail-storm, and providential escape of Captain Clark and his party - Description of a remarkable fountain -- Singular explosion heard from the Black mountains- The boat found to be insufficient, and the serious disappointment of the party - Captain Clark undertakes to repair the damage by building canoes, and accomplishes the task.

N the 19th, Captain Clark, not being able to find the bear mentioned in the last chapter, spent the day in examining the country both above and below the Whitebear islands, and concluded that the place of his encampment would be the best point for the extremity of the portage. The men were therefore occupied in drying the meat to be left here. Immense numbers of buffaloe are everywhere round, and they saw a summer duck, which is now sitting. The next morning, 20th, he crossed the level plain, fixed stakes to mark the route of the portage, till he passed a large ravine which would oblige us to make the portage farther from the river; after this, there being no other obstacle, he went to the river where he had first struck it, and took its courses and distances down to the camp. From the draught and survey of Captain Clark, we had now a clear and connected view of the falls, cascades, and rapids of the Missouri.

This river is three hundred yards wide at the point where it receives the waters of Medicine river, which is one hundred and thirty-seven yards in width. The united current continues three hundred and twenty-eight poles to a small

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rapid on the north side, from which it gradually widens to one thousand four hundred yards, and at the distance of five hundred and forty-eight poles reaches the head of the rapids, narrowing as it approaches them. Here the hills on the north, which had withdrawn from the bank, closely border the river, which, for the space of three hundred and twenty poles, makes its way over the rocks with a descent of thirty feet; in this course the current is contracted to five hundred and eighty yards, and after throwing itself over a small pitch of five feet, forms a beautiful cascade of twenty-six feet five inches; this does not, however, fall immediately perpendicular, being stopped by a part of the rock which projects at about one-third of the distance. After descending this fall, and passing the cottonwood island on which the eagle has fixed its nest, the river goes on for five hundred and thirtytwo poles over rapids and little falls, the estimated descent of which is thirteen feet six inches, till it is joined by a large fountain boiling up underneath the rocks near the edge of the river, into which it falls with a cascade of eight feet. It is of the most perfect clearness and rather of a bluish cast, and even after falling into the Missouri it preserves its colour for half a mile. From this fountain the river descends with increased rapidity for the distance of two hundred and fourteen poles, during which the estimated descent is five feet; from this, for a distance of one hundred and thirty-five poles, the river descends fourteen feet seven inches, including a perpendicular fall of six feet seven inches. The river has now become pressed into a space of four hundred and seventythree yards, and here forms a grand cataract by falling over a plain rock the whole distance across the river, to the depth of forty-seven feet eight inches; after recovering itself the Missouri then proceeds with an estimated descent of three feet, till at the distance of one hundred and two poles it

again is precipitated down the Crooked falls of nineteen feet perpendicular; below this, at the mouth of a deep ravine, is a fall of five feet, after which, for the distance of nine hundred and seventy poles, the descent is much more gradual, not being more than ten feet, and then succeeds a handsome level plain for the space of one hundred and seventy-eight poles, with a computed descent of three feet, making a bend towards the north. Thence it descends, during four hundred and eighty poles, about eighteen feet and a half, when it makes a perpendicular fall of two feet, which is ninety poles beyond the great cataract, in approaching which it descends thirteen feet within two hundred yards, and gathering strength from its confined channel, which is only two hundred and eighty yards wide, rushes over the fall to the depth of eightyseven feet and three-quarters of an inch. After raging among the rocks and losing itself in foam, it is compressed immediately into a bed of ninety-three yards in width; it continues for three hundred and forty poles to the entrance of a run or deep ravine, where there is a fall of three feet, which, joined to the decline of the river during that course, makes the descent six feet. As it goes on the descent within the next two hundred and forty poles is only four feet; from this, passing a run or deep ravine, the descent for four hundred poles is thirteen feet; within two hundred and forty poles, a second descent of eighteen feet; thence one hundred and sixty poles, a descent of six feet; after which to the mouth of Portage creek, a distance of two hundred and eighty poles, the descent is ten feet. From this survey and estimate it results that the river experiences a descent of three hundred and fifty-two feet in the course of two and three-quarter miles, from the commencement of the rapids to the mouth of Portage creek, exclusive of the almost impassable rapids which extend for a mile below its entrance.

The latitude of our camp below the entrance of Portage creek was found to be 47° 7′ 10′′ 3, as deduced from a meridian altitude of the sun's lower limb, taken with octant by back observation, giving 53° 10'.

Friday, June 21. Having made the necessary preparations for continuing our route, a part of the baggage was carried across the creek into the high plain, three miles in advance, and placed on one of the carriages with truck wheels; the rest of the party was employed in drying meat and dressing elk skins. We killed several mule-deer and an elk, and observed as usual vast quantities of buffaloe who came to drink at the river. For the first time on the Missouri we have seen near the falls a species of fishing duck, the body of which is brown and white, the wings white, and the head and upper part of the neck of a brick-red, with a narrow beak, which seems to be of the same kind common in the Susquehanna, Potomac, and James' river. The little wood which this neighbourhood affords consists of the broad and narrow leafed cottonwood, the box alder, the narrow and broad leafed willow, the large or sweet willow, which was not common below Maria's river, but which here attains the same size and has the same appearance as in the Atlantic states. The undergrowth consists of roses, gooseberries, currants, small honeysuckles, and the redwood, the inner part of which the engages, or watermen, are fond of smoking when mixed with tobacco.

Saturday, 22d. We now set out to pass the portage, and halted for dinner at eight miles distance near a little stream. The axletrees of our carriage, which had been made of an old mast, and the cottonwood tongues broke before we came there; but we renewed them with the timber of the sweet willow, which lasted till within half a mile of our intended camp, when the tongues gave way, and we were obliged to take as much baggage as we could carry on our backs down

to the river, where we formed an encampment in a small grove of timber opposite to the Whitebear islands. Here the banks on both sides of the river are handsome, level, and extensive; that near our camp is not more than two feet above the surface of the water. The river is about eight hundred yards wide just above these islands, ten feet deep in most places, and with a very gentle current. The plains, however, on this part of the river are not so fertile as those from the mouth of the Muscleshell and thence downwards; there is much more stone on the sides of the hills and on the broken lands than is to be found lower down. We saw in the plains vast quantities of buffaloe, a number of small birds, and the large brown curlew, which is now sitting, and lays its eggs, which are of a pale blue with black specks, on the ground without any nest. There is also a species of lark much resembling the bird called the oldfield lark, with a yellow breast and a black spot on the croup, though it differs from the latter in having its tail formed of feathers of an uneqal length and pointed; the beak, too, is somewhat longer and more curved, and the note differs considerably. The prickly pear annoyed us very much to-day by sticking through our moccasins. As soon as we had kindled our fires we examined the meat which Captain Clark had left here, but found that the greater part of it had been taken by the wolves.

Sunday, 23d. After we had brought up the canoe and baggage, Captain Clark went down to the camp at Portage creek, where four of the men had been left with the Indian woman. Captain Lewis, during the morning, prepared the camp, and in the afternoon went down in a canoe to Medicine river to look after the three men who had been sent thither to hunt on the 19th, and from whom nothing had as yet been heard. He went up the river about half a mile, and then