caved in, and most of the articles were injured. We took whatever was still worth preserving, and immediately proceeded to the point, where we found our deposits in good order. By a singular good fortune we were here joined by Sergeant Gass and Willard from the falls, who had been ordered to bring the horses here, to assist in collecting meat for the voyage, as it had been calculated that the canoes would reach this place much sooner than Captain Lewis's party. After a very heavy shower of rain and hail, attended with violent thunder and lightning, we left the point, and giving a final discharge to our horses, went over to the island where we had left our red pirogue, which however we found so much decayed that we had no means of repairing her; we, therefore, took all the iron work out of her, and proceeded down the river fifteen miles, and encamped near some cottonwood trees, one of which was of the narrow-leafed kind, and the first of that species we had remarked as we ascended the river."

While these incidents were happening, Captain Clark and his party had made their way to the Jefferson, and, pushing down the latter river and the Missouri into which it falls, succeeded in effecting a junction with the Lewis contingent and in time to reinforce it against the Indians that had menaced it.

CHAPTER XIII

THE LAST OF A LONG JOURNEY

THE force now reunited on the Missouri, a little below the junction of the Yellowstone, lost no time in proceeding on its way homewards. On reaching their old friends the Mandans (August 14), the Expedition found that tribe and the Minnetarees at war with the Ricaras, while the Assiniboines of the north were at strife with the Mandans. They received a hearty welcome, however, from the latter, but were unsuccessful in their efforts to reconcile the warring tribes, and so smoked the peace-pipe with them and continued their voyage down the river. Under safer and pleasanter circumstances, the explorers pushed on towards civilization, all of the Expedition members being hungry for home news, as well as for reunion with their respective families.

The "Journal" of the Expedition, at this point, gives an interesting account of the Yellowstone River and of its favorable site for trade. The party, it will be seen, was much annoyed by mosquitoes, and it also was a sufferer by the depredations of the Indians, in having stolen the horses, which necessitated the construction of extemporized canoes, made of the skins of wild beasts, for the voyage down the Yellowstone. The extract, which is here ap

pended, closes by an account of the meeting of two white men, hunters on the river, from whom the Expedition learned some welcome news of the outer world, with some information of Indian wars which was not so welcome to the party leaders.

"The Rochejaune, or Yellowstone River, according to Indian information, has its remote sources in the Rocky Mountains, near the peaks of the Rio del Norde, on the confines of New Mexico, to which country there is a good road during the whole distance along the banks of the Yellowstone. Its western waters are probably connected with those of Lewis's River, while the eastern branches approach the heads of Clark's River, the Bighorn, and the Platte; so that it waters the middle portion of the Rocky Mountains for several hundred miles from northwest to southeast. During its whole course from the point at which Captain Clark reached it to the Missouri, a distance which he computed at eight hundred and thirty-seven miles, this river is large and navigable for pirogues, and even batteaux, there being none of the moving sandbars which impede the navigation of the Missouri, and only a single ledge of rocks, which, however, is not difficult to pass. Even its tributary waters, the Bighorn, Clark's fork, and Tongue River, may be ascended in boats for a considerable distance. The banks of the river are low, but bold, and nowhere subject to be overflowed, except for a short distance below the mountains. The predominating color of the river is a yellowish-brown; that of the Missouri, which possesses more mud, is of a deep drab color; the bed of

the former being chiefly composed of loose pebble; which, however, diminish in size in descending the river, till after passing the Lazeka, the pebble cease as the river widens, and the mud and sand continue to form the greater part of the bottom. Over these the water flows with a velocity constantly and almost equally decreasing in proportion to its distance from the mountains. From the mountains to Clark's fork, the current may be estimated at four and a half miles per hour; thence as low as the Bighorn, at three and a half miles; between that and the Lazeka at three miles; and from that river to the Wolf rapid, at two and three-quarter miles; from which to its entrance, the general rapidity is two miles per hour. The appearance and character of the country present nearly similar varieties of fertile, rich, open lands. Above Clark's fork, it consists of high waving plains bordered by stony hills, partially supplied with pine; the middle portion, as low as the Buffalo shoals, contains less timber, and the number diminishes still lower, where the river widens, and the country spreads itself into extensive plains. Like all the branches of the Missouri which penetrate the Rocky Mountains, the Yellowstone and its streams, within that district of country beyond Clark's fork, abound in beaver and otter; a circumstance which strongly recommends the entrance of the latter river as a judicious position for the purposes of trade. To an establishment at that place, the Shoshones, both within and westward of the Rocky Mountains, would willingly resort, as they would be farther from the reach of the Blackfoot Indians, and the Minnetarees

of Fort de Prairie, than they could be in trading with any factories on the Missouri. The same motive of personal safety, would most probably induce many of the tribes on the Columbia and Lewis's River to prefer this place to the entrance of Maria's River, at least for some years; and as the Crow and Paunch Indians, the Castahanahs, and the Indians residing. south of Clark's fork, would also be induced to visit it, the mouth of that river might be considered as one of the most important establishments for the western fur trade. This too may be the more easily effected, as the adjacent country possesses a sufficiency of timber for the purpose, an advantage which is not found on any spot between Clark's Fork and the Rocky Mountains.

66

August 4.-The camp became absolutely uninhabitable, in consequence of the multitude of mosquitoes; the men could not work in preparing skins for clothing, nor hunt in the timbered low grounds; in short, there was no mode of escape, except by going on the sandbars in the river; where, if the wind should blow, the insects do not venture; but when there is no wind, and particularly at night, when the men have no covering except their worn-out blankets, the pain they suffer is scarcely to be endured. There was also a want of meat, for the buffalo were not to be found; and though the elk are very abundant, yet their fat and flesh is more difficult to dry in the sun, and is also much more easily spoiled than the meat or fat of either deer or buffalo. Captain Clark therefore determined to go on to some spot which should be free from mosquitoes, and furnish more game.