The Journals
of Lewis and Clark: Dates August 18, 1805 - August 19, 1805
The following
excerpts are taken from entries of the Journals of Lewis
and Clark. Dates: August 18, 1805 - August 19, 1805
August 18, 1805
Sunday 18. In order to relieve the men of captain Clarke's
party from the heavy weight of their arms provisions and
tools, we exposed a few articles to barter for horses, and
soon obtained three very good ones, in exchange for which
we gave a uniform coat, a pair of leggings, a few handkerchiefs,
three knifes and some other small articles, the whole of
which did not in the United States cost more than twenty
dollars: a fourth was purchased by the men for an old checkered
shirt, a pair of old leggings and a knife. The Indians seemed
to be quite as well pleased as ourselves at the bargains
they had made. We now found that the two inferior chiefs
were somewhat displeased at not having received a present
equal to that given to the great chief, who appeared in
a dress so much finer than their own. To allay their discontent,
we bestowed on them two old coats, and promised them that
if they were active in assisting us across the mountains
they should have an additional present. This treatment completely
reconciled them, and the whole Indian party, except two
men and two women, set out in perfect good humor to return
home with captain Clarke. After going fifteen miles through
a wide level valley with no wood but willows and shrubs,
he encamped in the Shoshone cove near a narrow pass where
the highlands approach within two hundred yards of each
other, and the river is only ten yards wide. The Indians
went on further, except the three chiefs and two young men,
who assisted in eating two deer brought in by the hunters.
After their departure every thing was prepared for the transportation
of the baggage, which was now exposed to the air and dried.
Our game was one deer and a beaver, and we saw an abundance
of trout in the river for which we fixed a net in the evening.
We have now reached the extreme navigable point of the Missouri,
which our observation places in latitude 43° 30' 43" north.
It is difficult to comprise in any general description the
characteristics of a river so extensive, and fed by so many
streams which have their sources in a great variety of soils
and climates. But the Missouri is still sufficiently powerful
to give to all its waters something of a common character,
which is of course decided by the nature of the country
through which it passes. The bed of the river is chiefly
composed of a blue mud from which the water itself derives
a deep tinge. From its junction here to the place near which
it leaves the mountains, its course is embarrassed by rapids
and rocks which the hills on each side have thrown into
its channel. From that place, its current, with the exception
of the falls, is not difficult of navigation, nor is there
much variation in its appearance till the mouth of the Platte.
That powerful river throws out vast quantities of coarse
sand which contribute to give a new face to the Missouri,
which is now much more impeded by islands. The sand, as
it is drifted down, adheres in time to some of the projecting
points from the shore, and forms a barrier to the mud, which
at length fills to the same height with the sandbar itself;
as soon as it has acquired a consistency, the willow grows
there the first year, and by its roots assists the solidity
of the whole: as the mud and sand accumulate the cottonwood
tree next appears; till the gradual excretion of soils raises
the surface of the point above the highest freshets. Thus
stopped in its course the water seeks a passage elsewhere,
and as the soil on each side is light and yielding, what
was only a peninsula, becomes gradually an island, and the
river indemnifies itself for the usurpation by encroaching
on the adjacent shore. In this way the Missouri like the
Mississippi is constantly cutting off the projections of
the shore, and leaving its ancient channel, which is then
marked by the mud it has deposited and a few stagnant ponds.
The general appearance of the country as it presents itself
on ascending may be thus described: From its mouth to the
two Charletons, a ridge of highlands borders the river at
a small distance, leaving between them fine rich meadows.
From the mouth of the two Charletons the hills recede from
the river, giving greater extent to the low grounds, but
they again approach the river for a short distance near
Grand river, and again at Snake creek. From that point they
retire, nor do they come again to the neighborhood of the
river till above the Sauk prairie, where they are comparatively
[388]low and small. Thence they diverge and reappear at
the Charaton Searty, after which they are scarcely if at
all discernible, till they advance to the Missouri nearly
opposite to the Kansas.
The same ridge of hills extends on the south side, in almost
one unbroken chain, from the mouth of the Missouri to the
Kansas, though decreasing in height beyond the Osage. As
they are nearer the river than the hills on the opposite
sides, the intermediate low grounds are of course narrower,
but the general character of the soil is common to both
sides.
In the meadows and along the shore, the tree most common
is the cottonwood, which with the willow forms almost the
exclusive growth of the Missouri. The hills or rather high
grounds, for they do not rise higher than from one hundred
and fifty to two hundred feet, are composed of a good rich
black soil, which is perfectly susceptible of cultivation,
though it becomes richer on the hills beyond the Platte,
and are in general thinly covered with timber. Beyond these
hills the country extends into high open plains, which are
on both sides sufficiently fertile, but the south has the
advantage of better streams of water, and may therefore
be considered as preferable for settlements. The lands,
however, become much better and the timber more abundant
between the Osage and the Kansas. From the Kansas to the
Nadawa the hills continue at nearly an equal distance, varying
from four to eight miles from each other, except that from
the little Platte to nearly opposite the ancient Kansas
village, the hills are more remote, and the meadows of course
wider on the north side of the river. From the Nadawa the
northern hills disappear, except at occasional intervals,
where they are seen at a distance, till they return about
twenty-seven miles above the Platte near the ancient village
of the Ayoways. On the south the hills continue close to
the river from the ancient village of the Kansas up to Council
bluff, fifty miles beyond the Platte; [389]forming high
prairie lands. On both sides the lands are good, and perhaps
this distance from the Osage to the Platte may be recommended
as among the best districts on the Missouri for the purposes
of settlers.
From the Ayoway village the northern hills again retire
from the river, to which they do not return till three hundred
and twenty miles above, at Floyd's river. The hills on the
south also leave the river at Council bluffs, and reappear
at the Mahar village, two hundred miles up the Missouri.
The country thus abandoned by the hills is more open and
the timber in smaller quantities than below the Platte,
so that although the plain is rich and covered with high
grass, the want of wood renders it less calculated for cultivation
than below that river.
The northern hills after remaining near the Missouri for
a few miles at Floyd's river, recede from it at the Sioux
river, the course of which they follow; and though they
again visit the Missouri at Whitestone river, where they
are low, yet they do not return to it till beyond James
river. The highlands on the south, after continuing near
the river at the Mahar villages, again disappear, and do
not approach it till the Cobalt bluffs, about forty-four
miles from the villages, and then from those bluffs to the
Yellowstone river, a distance of about one thousand miles,
they follow the banks of the river with scarcely any deviation.
From the James river, the lower grounds are confined within
a narrow space by the hills on both sides, which now continue
near each other up to the mountains. The space between them
however varies from one to three miles as high as the Muscleshell
river, from which the hills approach so high as to leave
scarcely any low grounds on the river, and near the falls
reach the waters edge. Beyond the falls the hills are scattered
and low to the first range of mountains.
The soil during the whole length of the Missouri below the
Platte is generally speaking very fine, and although the
timber is scarce, there is still sufficient for the purposes
of settlers; But beyond that river, although the soil is
still rich, yet the almost total absence of timber, and
particularly the want of good water, of which there is but
a small quantity in the creeks, and even that brackish,
oppose powerful obstacles to its settlement. The difficulty
becomes still greater between the Muscleshell river and
the falls, where besides the greater scarcity of timber,
the country itself is less fertile.
The elevation of these highlands varies as they pass through
this extensive tract of country. From Wood river they are
about one hundred and fifty feet above the water, and continue
at that height till they rise near the Osage, from which
place to the ancient fortification they again diminish in
size. Thence they continue higher till the Mandan village,
after which they are rather lower till the neighborhood
of Muscleshell river, where they are met by the Northern
hills, which have advanced at a more uniform height, varying
from one hundred and fifty to two hundred or three hundred
feet. From this place to the mountains the height of both
is nearly the same, from three hundred to five hundred feet,
and the low grounds so narrow that the traveler seems passing
through a range of high country. From Maria's river to the
falls, the hills descend to the height of about two or three
hundred feet.
August 19, 1805
Monday 19. The morning was cold, and the grass perfectly
whitened by the frost. We were engaged in preparing packs
and saddles to load the horses as soon as they should arrive.
A beaver was caught in a trap, but we were disappointed
in trying to catch trout in our net; we therefore made a
seine of willow brush, and by hauling it procured a number
of fine trout, and a species of mullet which we had not
seen before: it is about sixteen inches long, the scales
small; the nose long, obtusely pointed, and exceeding the
under jaw; the mouth opens with folds at the sides; it has
no teeth, and the tongue and palate is smooth. The [391]color
of its back and sides is a bluish brown, while the belly
is white: it has the faggot bones, whence we concluded it
to be of the mullet species. It is by no means so well flavored
a fish as the trout, which are the same as those we first
saw at the falls, larger than the speckled trout of the
mountains in the Atlantic states, and equally well flavored.
In the evening the hunters returned with two deer.
Captain Clarke, in the meantime, proceeded through a wide
level valley, in which the chief pointed out a spot where
many of his tribe were killed in battle a year ago. The
Indians accompanied him during the day, and as they had
nothing to eat, he was obliged to feed them from his own
stores, the hunters not being able to kill any thing. Just
as he was entering the mountains, he met an Indian with
two mules and a Spanish saddle, who was so polite as to
offer one of them to him to ride over the hills. Being on
foot, captain Clarke accepted his offer and gave him a waistcoat
as a reward for his civility.
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