rk in a circular form, with a wall surrounding it, about six
feet in height. The young willows along the water, joined to the general
appearance of the two shores, induce a belief that the bank of the
island is encroaching, and the Missouri indemnifies itself by washing
away the base of the fortification. The citadel contains about twenty
acres, but the parts between the long walls must embrace nearly five
hundred acres.

These are the first remains of the kind which we have had an opportunity
of examining; but our French interpreters assure us, that there are
great numbers of them on the Platte, the Kanzas, the Jacques, &c. and
some of our party say, that they observed two of those fortresses on the
upper side of the Petit Arc creek, not far from its mouth; that the wall
was about six feet high, and the sides of the angles one hundred yards
in length.

September 3. The morning was cold, and the wind from the northwest. We
passed at sunrise, three large sandbars, and at the distance of ten
miles reached a small creek, about twelve yards wide, coming in from the
north, above a white bluff: this creek has obtained the name of Plum
creek, from the number of that fruit which are in the neighbourhood, and
of a delightful quality. Five miles further, we encamped on the south
near the edge of a plain; the river is wide, and covered with sandbars
to-day: the banks are high and of a whitish colour; the timber scarce,
but an abundance of grapes. Beaver houses too have been observed in
great numbers on the river, but none of the animals themselves.

September 4. We set out early, with a very cold wind from S.S.E. and at
one mile and a half, reached a small creek, called Whitelime creek, on
the south side. Just above this is a cliff, covered with cedar trees,
and at three miles a creek, called Whitepaint creek, of about thirty
yards wide: on the same side, and at four and a half miles distance from
the Whitepaint creek, is the Rapid river, or, as it is called by the
French, la Riverequi Court; this river empties into the Missouri, in a
course S.W. by W. and is one hundred and fifty-two yards wide, and four
feet deep at the confluence. It rises in the Black mountains, and passes
through a hilly country, with a poor soil. Captain Clark ascended three
miles to a beautiful plain, on the upper side, where the Pawnees once
had a village: he found that the river widened above its mouth, and
much divided by sands and islands, which, join