ed with
drift wood. This had probably been occasioned by the giving way of some
sand-bank, which had before detained the wood, as it floated down the
stream.

The weather was now so hot that some of the men experienced from it
great inconvenience; but the air was occasionally cooled by showers. In
the evenings the voyagers often landed and encamped, for the purpose of
passing the night on shore. In that part of the river at which they
arrived on the 16th, the width, from bank to bank, was about a mile; but
the water was so shallow that they could perceive the remains of fallen
timber scattered quite across the bottom. The Missouri is here wider
than it is below, where the timber, which grows on its banks, resists
the power of the current.

On the 21st of July the voyagers reached the mouth of the great _river
Platte_. Captains Lewis and Clarke ascended it for about a mile, and
found the current very rapid; rolling over sands, and divided into
several channels, none of which, however, appeared to be more than five
or six feet deep.

At this place they encamped for several days, in order to dry their
provisions, make some oars, prepare an account and make maps of the
country through which they had passed. The game they saw here were
chiefly deer, turkeys, and grouse; and they obtained an abundance of
ripe grapes. During the nights they were much annoyed by wolves. The
country behind their camp was a plain, about five miles in extent, one
half covered with wood, and the other dry and elevated.

Not far from this place was a settlement of the _Pawnee Indians_; a race
which had once been extremely numerous, but which now consisted of only
four bands, comprising, in the whole, about one thousand four hundred
persons.

On the 30th of July, the commanders of the expedition directed an
encampment to be formed on the southern bank of the river, for the
purpose of their waiting the arrival of the chiefs of the Ottoe Indians,
with whom an interview had been appointed to take place. From an
elevated station near the camp, they had a beautiful view of the river
and of the adjoining country. The hunters abundantly supplied them with
deer, turkeys, geese, and beavers; and they were well supplied with
fish.

A party of fourteen _Ottoe_ and _Missouri Indians_, came, at sunset, on
the 2d of August, accompanied by a Frenchman who had resided among them
and acted as an interpreter. The next morning an awning was formed with
the mai