hich Captain Clark
had been caught by the storm was filled with large rocks. The men
complain much of the bruises received yesterday from the hail. A
more than usual number of buffalo appeared about the camp to-day, and
furnished plenty of meat. Captain Clark thought that at one view he must
have seen at least ten thousand."

Of the party at the upper camp, opposite White Bear Islands, the journal
makes this observation:--

"The party continues to be occupied with the boat, the cross-bars for
which are now finished, and there remain only the strips to complete the
woodwork. The skins necessary to cover it have already been prepared;
they amount to twenty-eight elk-skins and four buffalo-skins. Among our
game were two beaver, which we have had occasion to observe are found
wherever there is timber. We also killed a large bull-bat or goatsucker,
of which there are many in this neighborhood, resembling in every
respect those of the same species in the United States. We have not seen
the leather-winged bat for some time, nor are there any of the small
goatsucker in this part of the Missouri. We have not seen that species
of goatsucker called the whippoorwill, which is commonly confounded in
the United States with the large goatsucker which we observe here.
This last prepares no nest, but lays its eggs on the open plains; they
generally begin to sit on two eggs, and we believe raise only one brood
in a season; at the present moment they are just hatching their young."

Dr. Coues says that we should bear in mind that this was written "when
bats were birds and whales were fishes for most persons." The journal
confounds bats, which are winged mammals, with goatsuckers, or
whippoorwills, which are birds.

The second of July was an interesting date for the explorers. On that
day we find the following entry in their journal:--

"A shower of rain fell very early this morning. We then despatched some
men for the baggage left behind yesterday, and the rest were engaged in
putting the boat together. This was accomplished in about three hours,
and then we began to sew on the leather over the crossbars of iron on
the inner side of the boat which form the ends of the sections. By two
o'clock the last of the baggage arrived, to the great delight of
the party, who were anxious to proceed. The mosquitoes we find very
troublesome.

"Having completed our celestial observations, we went over to the large
island to make an attack upon it