Here he
encamped for the night. The country he passed is like that of the rest
of this valley, though there is more timber in this part on the rapid
fork than there has been on the river in the same extent since we
entered it; for on some parts of the valley the Indians seem to have
destroyed a great proportion of the little timber there was, by setting
fire to the bottoms. He saw some antelopes, deer, cranes, geese and
ducks of the two species common to this country, though the summer duck
has ceased to appear, nor does it seem to be an inhabitant of this part
of the river.

We proceeded soon after sunrise: the first five miles we passed four
bends on the left, and several bayous on both sides. At eight o'clock we
stopped to breakfast, and found the note captain Lewis had written on
the 2d instant. During the next four miles, we passed three small bends
of the river to the right, two small islands, and two bayous on the same
side. Here we reached a bluff on the left; our next course was six miles
to our encampment. In this course we met six circular bends on the
right, and several small bayous, and halted for the night in a low
ground of cottonwood on the right. Our days journey, though only fifteen
miles in length, was very fatiguing. The river is still rapid and the
water though clear is very much obstructed by shoals or ripples at every
two or three hundred yards: at all these places we are obliged to drag
the canoes over the stones as there is not a sufficient depth of water
to float them, and in the other parts the current obliges us to have
recourse to the cord. But as the brushwood on the banks will not permit
us to walk on shore, we are under the necessity of wading through the
river as we drag the boats. This soon makes our feet tender, and
sometimes occasions severe falls over the slippery stones; and the men
by being constantly wet are becoming more feeble. In the course of the
day the hunters killed two deer, some geese and ducks, and the party
saw antelopes, cranes, beaver and otter.

Monday 5. This morning Chaboneau complained of being unable to march far
to-day, and captain Lewis therefore ordered him and serjeant Gass to
pass the rapid river and proceed through the level low ground, to a
point of high timber on the middle fork, seven miles distant, and wait
his return. He then went along the north side of the rapid river about
four miles, where he waded it, and found it so rapid and shallow that it
wo