ing much alarm lest they should trample on the
boats and ruin them. In those days, buffalo were so numerous that they
were a nuisance to travellers; and they were so free from fear of man
that they were too familiar with the camps and equipage. On the first of
August we find this entry in the journal of the party:--

"The buffalo now appear in vast numbers. A herd happened to be on their
way across the river. Such was the multitude of these animals that,
though the river, including an island over which they passed, was a mile
wide, the herd stretched, as thickly as they could swim, from one
side to the other, and the party was obliged to stop for an hour. They
consoled themselves for the delay by killing four of the herd; and then
having proceeded for the distance of forty-five miles (in all to-day)
to an island, below which two other herds of buffalo, as numerous as the
first, soon after crossed the river."

Again, on the very next day, we find this entry:--

"The river was now about a mile wide, less rapid, and more divided by
islands, and bars of sand and mud, than heretofore; the low grounds,
too, were more extensive, and contained a greater quantity of
cottonwood, ash, and willows. On the northwest was a low, level plain,
and on the southeast some rugged hills, on which we saw, without being
able to approach them, some bighorns. Buffalo and elk, as well as their
pursuers, the wolves, were in great numbers. On each side of the
river there were several dry beds of streams, but the only one of any
considerable size was one to which they gave the name of Ibex River,
on the right, about thirty yards wide, and sixteen miles from their
encampment of the preceding night. The bear, which had given them so
much trouble at the head of the Missouri, they found equally fierce
here. One of these animals, which was on a sand-bar as the boat passed,
raised himself on his hind feet, and after looking at the party for a
moment, plunged in and swam towards them; but, after receiving three
balls in the body, he turned and made for the shore. Towards evening
they saw another enter the water to swim across; when Captain Clark
directed the boat towards the shore, and just as the animal landed shot
it in the head. It proved to be the largest female they had ever seen,
and was so old that its tusks were worn quite smooth. The boats escaped
with difficulty between two herds of buffalo that were crossing the
river, and came near being agai