is a small creek falling
in from the eastward, five miles below which we halted at a large stream
which empties itself on the west side of the river. It is a fine bold
creek of clear water about twenty yards wide, and we called it
_Traveller's-rest_ creek; for as our guide told us that we should here
leave the river, we determined to remain for the purpose of making
celestial observations and collecting some food, as the country through
which we are to pass has no game for a great distance.

The valley of the river through which we have been passing is generally
a prairie from five to six miles in width, and with a cold gravelly
white soil. The timber which it possesses is almost exclusively pine,
chiefly of the long-leafed kind, with some spruce, and a species of fir
resembling the Scotch fir: near the water courses are also seen a few
narrow-leafed cottonwood trees, and the only underbrush is the redwood,
honeysuckle, and rosebushes. Our game was four deer, three geese, four
ducks, and three prairie fowls; one of the hunters brought in a
red-headed woodpecker of the large kind common in the United States,
but the first of the kind we have seen since leaving the Illinois.

Tuesday, 10. The morning being fair all the hunters were sent out, and
the rest of the party employed in repairing their clothes: two of them
were sent to the junction of the river from the east, along which the
Indians go to the Missouri: it is about seven miles below
Traveller's-rest creek; the country at the forks is seven or eight miles
wide, level and open, but with little timber; its course is to the
north, and we incline to believe that this is the river which the
Minnetarees had described to us as running from south to north along the
west side of the Rocky mountains, not far from the sources of Medicine
river: there is moreover reason to suppose, that after going as far
northward as the head-waters of that river it turns to the westward and
joins the Tacootchetessee. Towards evening one of the hunters returned
with three Indians, whom he had met in his excursion up Traveller's-rest
creek: as soon as they saw him they prepared to attack him with arrows,
but he quieted them by laying down his gun and advancing towards them,
and soon persuaded them to come to the camp. Our Shoshonee guide could
not speak the language of these people, but by the universal language of
signs and gesticulations, which is perfectly intelligible among the
Indians,