to
find our encampment had staid out all night: he now supplied us with
five deer. Three and a quarter miles beyond Whitehouse creek we came to
the lower point of an island where the river is three hundred yards
wide, and continued along it for one mile and a quarter, and then passed
a second island just above it. We halted rather early for dinner in
order to dry some part of the baggage which had been wet in the canoes:
we then proceeded, and at five and a half miles had passed two small
islands. Within the next three miles we came to a large island, which
from its figure we called Broad island. From that place we made three
and a half miles, and encamped on an island to the left, opposite to a
much larger one on the right. Our journey to-day was twenty-two and a
quarter miles, the greater part of which was made by means of our poles
and cords, the use of which the banks much favoured. During the whole
time we had the small flags hoisted in the canoes to apprise the
Indians, if there were any in the neighbourhood, of our being white men
and their friends; but we were not so fortunate as to discover any of
them. Along the shores we saw great quantities of the common thistle,
and procured a further supply of wild onions and a species of garlic
growing on the highlands, which is now green and in bloom: it has a flat
leaf, and is strong, tough, and disagreeable. There was also much of the
wild flax, of which we now obtained some ripe seed, as well as some
bullrush and cattail flag. Among the animals we met with a black snake
about two feet long, with the belly as dark as any other part of the
body, which was perfectly black, and which had one hundred and
twenty-eight scuta on the belly and sixty-three on the tail: we also saw
antelopes, crane, geese, ducks, beaver, and otter; and took up four deer
which had been left on the water side by captain Clarke. He had pursued
all day an Indian road on the right side of the river, and encamped late
in the evening at the distance of twenty-five miles from our camp of
last night. In the course of his walk he met besides deer a number of
antelopes and a herd of elk, but all the tracks of Indians, though
numerous, were of an old date.

Wednesday, 24. We proceeded for four and a quarter miles along several
islands to a small run, just above which the low bluffs touch the river.
Within three and a half miles further we came to a small island on the
north, and a remarkable bluff composed