t out with this intention,
he saw one of the party in advance of the canoes; although our camp was
only two miles below him, in a straight line, we could not reach him
sooner, in consequence of the rapidity of the water and the circuitous
course of the river. We halted for breakfast, after which captain Lewis
continued his route. At the distance of one mile from our encampment we
passed the principal entrance of a stream on the left, which rises in
the snowy mountains to the southwest, between Jefferson and Madison
rivers, and discharges itself by seven mouths, five below, and one three
miles above this, which is the largest, and about thirty yards wide: we
called it Philosophy river. The water of it is abundant and perfectly
clear, and the bed like that of the Jefferson consists of pebble and
gravel. There is some timber in the bottoms of the river, and vast
numbers of otter and beaver, which build on its smaller mouths and the
bayous of its neighbourhood. The Jefferson continues as yesterday,
shoaly and rapid, but as the islands though numerous are small, it is
however more collected into one current than it was below, and is from
ninety to one hundred and twenty yards in width. The low ground has a
fertile soil of rich black loam, and contains a considerable quantity of
timber, with the bullrush and cattail flag very abundant in the moist
parts, while the drier situations are covered with fine grass, tansy,
thistles, onions, and flax. The uplands are barren, and without timber:
the soil is a light yellow clay intermixed with small smooth pebble and
gravel, and the only produce is the prickly-pear, the sedge, and the
bearded grass, which is as dry and inflammable as tinder. As we
proceeded the low grounds became narrower, and the timber more scarce,
till at the distance of ten miles the high hills approach and overhang
the river on both sides, forming cliffs of a hard black granite, like
almost all those below the limestone cliffs at the three forks of the
Missouri: they continue so for a mile and three quarters, where we came
to a point of rock on the right side, at which place the hills again
retire, and the valley widens to the distance of a mile and a half.
Within the next five miles we passed four islands, and reached the foot
of a mountain in a bend of the river to the left: from this place we
went a mile and a quarter to the entrance of a small run discharging
itself on the left, and encamped on an island just ab