t course of the river, which was one
constant succession of rapids and small cascades, at every one of which
the bluffs grew lower, or the bed of the river became more on a level
with the plains. At the distance of two and a half miles he arrived at
another cataract of twenty-six feet. The river is here six hundred
yards wide, but the descent is not immediately perpendicular, though the
river falls generally with a regular and smooth sheet; for about one
third of the descent a rock protrudes to a small distance, receives the
water in its passage and gives it a curve. On the south side is a
beautiful plain a few feet above the level of the falls; on the north
the country is more broken, and there is a hill not far from the river.
Just below the falls is a little island in the middle of the river well
covered with timber. Here on a cottonwood tree an eagle had fixed its
nest, and seemed the undisputed mistress of a spot, to contest whose
dominion neither man nor beast would venture across the gulfs that
surround it, and which is further secured by the mist rising from the
falls. This solitary bird could not escape the observation of the
Indians who made the eagle's nest a part of their description of the
falls, which now proves to be correct in almost every particular, except
that they did not do justice to their height. Just above this is a
cascade of about five feet, beyond which, as far as could be discerned,
the velocity of the water seemed to abate. Captain Lewis now ascended
the hill which was behind him, and saw from its top a delightful plain
extending from the river to the base of the Snow mountains to the south
and southwest. Along this wide level country the Missouri pursued its
winding course, filled with water to its even and grassy banks, while
about four miles above it was joined by a large river flowing from the
northwest through a valley three miles in width, and distinguished by
the timber which adorned its shores; the Missouri itself stretches to
the south in one unruffled stream of water as if unconscious of the
roughness it must soon encounter, and bearing on its bosom vast flocks
of geese, while numerous herds of buffaloe are feeding on the plains
which surround it.

Captain Lewis then descended the hill, and directed his course towards
the river falling in from the west. He soon met a herd of at least a
thousand buffaloe, and being desirous of providing for supper shot one
of them; the animal began