wstone. From the point of
junction a wood occupies the space between the two rivers, which at the
distance of a mile comes within two hundred and fifty yards of each
other. There a beautiful low plain commences, and widening as the rivers
recede, extends along each of them for several miles, rising about half
a mile from the Missouri into a plain twelve feet higher than itself.
The low plain is a few inches above high water mark, and where it joins
the higher plain there is a channel of sixty or seventy yards in width,
through which a part of the Missouri when at its greatest height passes
into the Yellowstone. At two and a half miles above the junction and
between the high and low plain is a small lake, two hundred yards wide,
extending for a mile parallel with the Missouri along the edge of the
upper plain. At the lower extremity of this lake, about four hundred
yards from the Missouri, and twice that distance from the Yellowstone,
is a situation highly eligible for a trading establishment; it is in the
high plain which extends back three miles in width, and seven or eight
miles in length, along the Yellowstone, where it is bordered by an
extensive body of woodland, and along the Missouri with less breadth,
till three miles above it is circumscribed by the hills within a space
four yards in width. A sufficient quantity of limestone for building may
easily be procured near the junction of the rivers; it does not lie in
regular stratas, but is in large irregular masses, of a light colour and
apparently of an excellent quality. Game too is very abundant, and as
yet quite gentle; above all, its elevation recommends it as preferable
to the land at the confluence of the rivers, which their variable
channels may render very insecure. The N.W. wind rose so high at eleven
o'clock, that we were obliged to stop till about four in the afternoon,
when we proceeded till dusk. On the south a beautiful plain separates
the two rivers, till at about six miles there is a timbered piece of low
ground, and a little above it bluffs, where the country rises gradually
from the river; the situations on the north more high and open. We
encamped on that side, the wind, the sand which it raised, and the
rapidity of the current having prevented our advancing more than eight
miles; during the latter part of the day the river becomes wider and
crowded with sandbars: although the game is in such plenty we kill only
what is necessary for our subsistenc