hwest five miles to a narrow part of the
bottom; then turning south 70 degrees west, two miles to a creek on the
right: thence south 80 degrees west, three miles to a rocky point
opposite to a thicket of pines on the left; from that place west, three
miles to the gap where is the fountain of the Missouri: on leaving this
fountain south 80 degrees west, six miles across the dividing ridge, to
a run from the right passing several small streams north 80 degrees
west, four miles over hilly ground to the east fork of Lewis's river,
which is here forty yards wide.

Thursday 29. Captain Clarke joined us this morning, and we continued our
bargains for horses. The late misfortunes of the Shoshonees make the
price higher than common, so that one horse cost a pistol, one hundred
balls, some powder and a knife; another was changed for a musket, and in
this way we obtained twenty-nine. The horses themselves are young and
vigorous, but they are very poor, and most of them have sore backs in
consequence of the roughness of the Shoshonee saddle. We are therefore
afraid of loading them too heavily and are anxious to obtain one at
least for each man to carry the baggage, or the man himself, or in the
last resource to serve as food; but with all our exertions we could not
provide all our men with horses. We have, however, been fortunate in
obtaining for the last three days a sufficient supply of flesh, our
hunters having killed two or three deer every day.

Friday 30. The weather was fine, and having now made all our purchases,
we loaded our horses, and prepared to start. The greater part of the
band who had delayed their journey on our account, were also ready to
depart. We then took our leave of the Shoshonees, who set out on their
visit to the Missouri at the same time that we accompanied by the old
guide, his four sons, and another Indian, began the descent of the
river, along the same road which captain Clarke had previously pursued.
After riding twelve miles we encamped on the south bank of the river,
and as the hunters had brought in three deer early in the morning we did
not feel the want of provisions.

Saturday 31. At sunrise we resumed our journey, and halted for three
hours on Salmon creek to let the horses graze. We then proceeded to the
stream called Berry creek eighteen miles from the camp of last night: as
we passed along, the vallies and prairies were on fire in several
places, in order to collect the bands of the Shosh