on the hills
though it has melted from the plains. The wind too continued high from
the west, but not so violently as to prevent our going on. At two miles
from our encampment we passed a curious collection of bushes about
thirty feet high and ten or twelve in diameter, tied in the form of a
fascine and standing on end in the middle of the low ground: this too we
supposed to have been left by the Indians as a religious sacrifice: at
twelve o'clock the usual hour we halted for dinner. The low grounds on
the river are much wider than common, sometimes extending from five to
nine miles to the highlands, which are much lower than heretofore, not
being more than fifty or sixty feet above the lower plain: through all
this valley traces of the ancient bed of the river are every where
visible, and since the hills have become lower, the stratas of coal,
burnt earth, and pumicestone have in a great measure ceased, there
being in fact none to-day. At the distance of fourteen miles we reached
the mouth of a river on the north, which from the unusual number of
porcupines near it, we called Porcupine river. This is a bold and
beautiful stream one hundred and twelve yards wide, though the water is
only forty yards at its entrance: captain Clarke who ascended it several
miles and passed it above where it enters the highlands, found it
continued nearly of the same width and about knee deep, and as far as he
could distinguish for twenty miles from the hills, its course was from a
little to the east of north. There was much timber on the low grounds:
he found some limestone also on the surface of the earth in the course
of his walk, and saw a range of low mountains at a distance to the west
of north, whose direction was northwest; the adjoining country being
every where level, fertile, open, and exceedingly beautiful. The water
of this river is transparent, and is the only one that is so of all
those that fall into the Missouri: before entering a large sandbar
through which it discharges itself, its low grounds are formed of a
stiff blue and black clay, and its banks which are from eight to ten
feet high and seldom if ever overflow are composed of the same
materials. From the quantity of water which this river contains, its
direction, and the nature of the country through which it passes, it is
not improbable that its sources may be near the main body of the
Saskaskawan, and as in high water it can be no doubt navigated to a
considerable