observation of the
time proved our chronometer too slow, by 6' 51"6/10. The highlands bear
from our camp, north 25 degrees west, up the river. Captain Lewis rode
up the country, and saw the Nishnahbatona, about ten or twelve miles
from its mouth, at a place not more than three hundred yards from the
Missouri, and a little above our camp. It then passes near the foot of
the Baldhills, and is at least six feet below the level of the Missouri.
On its banks are the oak, walnut, and mulberry. The common current of
the Missouri, taken with the log, is 50 fathoms in 40", at some places,
and even 20".

Wednesday, July 18. The morning was fair, and a gentle wind from
southeast by south, carried us along between the prairie on the north,
and Bald island to the south: opposite the middle of which, the
Nishnahbatona approaches the nearest to the Missouri. The current here
ran fifty fathoms in 41". At thirteen and a half miles, we reached an
island on the north, near to which the banks overflow; while on the
south, the hills project over the river and form high cliffs. At one
point a part of the cliff, nearly three quarters of a mile in length,
and about two hundred feet in height, has fallen into the river. It is
composed chiefly of sandstone intermixed with an iron ore of bad
quality; near the bottom is a soft slatestone with pebbles. We passed
several bad sandbars in the course of the day, and made eighteen miles,
and encamped on the south, opposite to the lower point of the Oven
islands. The country around is generally divided into prairies, with
little timber, except on low points, islands, and near creeks, and that
consisting of cottonwood, mulberry, elm, and sycamore. The river falls
fast. An Indian dog came to the bank; he appeared to have been lost and
was nearly starved: we gave him some food, but he would not follow us.

Thursday, July 19. The Oven islands are small, and two in number; one
near the south shore, the other in the middle of the river. Opposite to
them is the prairie, called Terrien's Oven, from a trader of that name.
At four and a half miles, we reached some high cliffs of a yellow earth,
on the south, near which are two beautiful runs of water, rising in the
adjacent prairies, and one of them with a deerlick, about two hundred
yards from its mouth. In this neighbourhood we observed some iron ore in
the bank. At two and a half miles above the runs, a large portion of the
hill, for nearly three quarters of a