y of the creeks were found to be so strongly
impregnated with mineral salts, that they were not fit to be drunk. On
each bank of the Missouri the country presented the appearance of low
plains and meadows; bounded, at the distance of a few miles, by broken
hills, which end in high, level, and fertile lands: the quantity of
timber was increasing. In the timbered-grounds, higher up the river, the
voyagers observed a great quantity of old hornets' nests. Many of the
hills exhibited a volcanic appearance, furnishing great quantities of
lava and pumice stone: of the latter, several pieces were observed
floating down the river. In all the copses there were remains of
Assiniboin encampments.

On the twentieth, near an Indian camp, the voyagers observed a scaffold,
about seven feet high, on which were two sleds, with their harness; and
under the scaffold was the body of a female, carefully wrapped in
several dressed buffalo-skins. Near it lay a bag, made of buffalo-skin,
and containing some articles of apparel, scrapers for dressing hides,
some dried roots, plats of sweet grass, and a small quantity of tobacco.
These, as well as the body, had probably fallen down by accident, as it
is customary to place the dead bodies on scaffolds. At a little distance
was the body of a dog, not yet decayed: he had, no doubt, been employed
in dragging, in the sled, the body of his mistress, and, according to
the Indian usage, had been sacrificed to her.

From the sand-bars in the river, the wind sometimes blew such vast
quantities of sand into the air, as to appear like clouds, and even to
conceal the opposite bank from view. These clouds of sand floated, like
columns of thick smoke, to the distance of many miles; and the particles
were so penetrating, that nothing could be kept free from them.

Near the junction of _Yellow-stone river_ with the Missouri, the country
was much more woody than it had been in any other part, since the
voyagers had passed the Chayenne; and the trees were chiefly of
cotton-wood, elm, ash, box, and alder. In the low grounds were
rose-bushes, the red-berry, service-berry, red-wood, and other shrubs;
and among the bushes on the higher plains, were observed willows,
gooseberry-trees, purple currant-trees, and honeysuckles. The sources of
Yellow-stone river are said to be in the Rocky Mountains, near those of
the Missouri and the Platte; and this river is navigable, in canoes,
almost to its head.

Near the junction