. It is a handsome, bold,
and clear stream, eighty yards wide, that is nearly as broad as the
Missouri, with a rapid current over a bed of small smooth stones of
various figures. The water is extremely transparent, the low grounds are
narrow, but possess as much wood as those of the Missouri; and it has
every appearance of being navigable, though to what distance we cannot
ascertain, as the country which it waters, is broken and mountainous. In
honour of the secretary at war we called it Dearborn's river. Being now
very anxious to meet with the Shoshonees or Snake Indians, for the
purpose of obtaining the necessary information of our route, as well as
to procure horses, it was thought best for one of us to go forward with
a small party and endeavour to discover them, before the daily discharge
of our guns, which is necessary for our subsistence, should give them
notice of our approach: if by an accident they hear us, they will most
probably retreat to the mountains, mistaking us for their enemies who
usually attack them on this side. Accordingly captain Clarke set out
with three men, and followed the course of the river on the north side;
but the hills were so steep at first that he was not able to go much
faster than ourselves. In the evening however he cut off many miles of
the circuitous course of the river, by crossing a mountain over which he
found a wide Indian road which in many places seems to have been cut or
dug down in the earth. He passed also two branches of a stream which he
called Ordway's creek, where he saw a number of beaver-dams extending in
close succession towards the mountains as far as he could distinguish:
on the cliffs were many of the big-horned animals. After crossing this
mountain he encamped near a small stream of running water, having
travelled twenty miles.

On leaving Dearborn's river we passed at three and a half miles a small
creek, and at six beyond it an island on the north side of the river,
which makes within that distance many small bends. At two and a half
miles further is another island: three quarters of a mile beyond this is
a small creek on the north side. At a mile and a half above the creek is
a much larger stream thirty yards wide, and discharging itself with a
bold current on the north side: the banks are low, and the bed formed of
stones altogether. To this stream we gave the name of Ordway's creek,
after serjeant John Ordway. At two miles beyond this the valley widens:
w