and
hills, with timber: on the south, low and covered with cottonwood. Our
hunter brought to us in the evening, a Missouri Indian, whom he had
found, with two others, dressing an elk; they were perfectly friendly,
gave him some of the meat, and one of them agreed to accompany him to
the boat. He is one of the few remaining Missouris, who live with the
Ottoes: he belongs to a small party, whose camp is four miles from the
river; and he says, that the body of the nation is now hunting buffaloe
in the plains: he appeared quite sprightly, and his language resembled
that of the Osage, particularly in his calling a chief, inca. We sent
him back with one of our party next morning,

Sunday, July 29, with an invitation to the Indians, to meet us above on
the river, and then proceeded. We soon came to a northern bend in the
river, which runs within twenty yards of Indian Knob creek, the water of
which is five feet higher than that of the Missouri. In less than two
miles, we passed Boyer's creek on the north, of twenty-five yards width.
We stopped to dine under a shade, near the highland on the south, and
caught several large catfish, one of them nearly white, and all very
fat. Above this highland, we observed the traces of a great hurricane,
which passed the river obliquely from N.W. to S.E. and tore up large
trees, some of which perfectly sound, and four feet in diameter, were
snapped off near the ground. We made ten miles to a wood on the north,
where we encamped. The Missouri is much more crooked, since we passed
the river Platte, though generally speaking, not so rapid; more of
prairie, with less timber, and cottonwood in the low grounds, and oak,
black walnut, hickory, and elm.

July 30. We went early in the morning, three and a quarter miles, and
encamped on the south, in order to wait for the Ottoes. The land here
consists of a plain, above the highwater level, the soil of which is
fertile, and covered with a grass from five to eight feet high,
interspersed with copses of large plums, and a currant, like those of
the United States. It also furnishes two species of honeysuckle; one
growing to a kind of shrub, common about Harrodsburgh (Kentucky), the
other is not so high: the flowers grow in clusters, are short, and of a
light pink colour; the leaves too, are distinct, and do not surround the
stalk, as do those of the common honeysuckle of the United States. Back
of this plain, is a woody ridge about seventy feet above it