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The second species is lower, shorter in the legs, and thicker than the Atlantic wolf. Their colour, which is not affected by the seasons, is of every variety of shade, from a grey or blackish brown to a cream-coloured white. They do not burrow, nor do they bark, but howl, and they frequent the woods and plains, and skulk along the skirts of the buffaloe herds, in order to attack the weary or wounded.

BLACK BEAR.

Captain Clarke and one of the hunters met this evening the largest brown bear we have seen. As they fired he did not attempt to attack, but filed with a most tremendous roar, and such was his extraordinary tenacity of life, that although he had five balls passed through his lungs, and five other wounds, he swam more than half across the river to a sandbar, and survived twenty minutes. He weighed between five and six hundred pounds at least, and measured eight feet seven inches and a half from the nose to the extremity of the hind feet, five feet ten inches and a half round the breast, three feet eleven inches round the neck, one foot eleven inches round the middle of the fore-leg, and his talons, five on each foot, were four inches and three eighths in length, It differs from the common black bear in having its talons much longer and more blunt; its tail shorter; its hair of a reddish or bay brown, longer, finer, and more abundant; his liver, lungs, and heart, much larger even in proportion to its size, the heart parti cularly being equal to that of a large ox; his maw ten times larger; his testicles pendant from the belly and in separate pouches four inches apart: besides fish and flesh he feeds on roots, and every kind of wild fruit.

DRY RIVERS.

We passed three streams on the south; the first, at the distance of one mile and a half from our camp, was about twenty-five yards wide; but although it contained some water in' standing pools it discharges none: this we called Littledry Creek, about eight miles beyond which is Bigdry Creek, fifty yards wide, without any water. The third is six miles further, and has the bed of a large river two hundred yards wide, yet without a drop of water. Like the other two this stream, which we called Bigdry river, continues its width undiminished as far as we can discern. The banks are low,

the channel formed of a fine brown sand, intermixed with a small proportion of little pebbles of various colours, and the country around flat and without trees. They had recently discharged their waters, and from their appearance and the nature of the country through which they pass, we concluded that they rose in the Black mountains, or in the level low plains which are probably between this place and the mountains; that the country being nearly of the same kind and of the same latitude, the rains of spring melting the snows about the same time, conspire with them to throw at once vast quantities of water down these channels, which are then left dry during the summer, autumn, and winter, when there is very little rain.

At fifteen and a quarter miles we reached the bed of a most extraordinary river which presents itself on the south: though as wide as the Missouri itself, that is about half a mile, it does not discharge a drop of water, and contains nothing but a few standing pools. On ascending it three miles we found an eminence from which we saw the direction of the channel, first south for ten or twelve miles, then turning to the east of south-east as far as we could see; it passes through a wide valley without timber, and the surrounding country consists of waving low hills interspersed with some handsome level plains; the banks are ab rupt, and consist of a black or yellow clay, or of a rich sandy loam, but though they do not rise more than six or eight feet above the bed, they exhi bit no appearance of being overflowed; the bed is entirely composed of a light brown sand, the particles of which, like those of the Missouri, are extremely fine. Like the dry rivers we passed before, this seemed to have discharged its waters recently, but the watermark indicated that its greatest depth had not been more than two feet: this stream, if it deserve the name, we call. ed Bigdry river. About a mile below is a large creek on the same side, which is also perfectly dry.

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About five in the afternoon one of our men, who had been afflicted with. biles,. and suffered to walk on shore, came running to the boats with loud cries and every symptom of terror and distress; for some time after we had taken him on board, he was so much out of breath as to be unable to de

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scribe the cause of his anxiety, but he at length told us that about a mile and a half below he had shot a brown bear, which immediately turned, and was in close pursuit of him; but the bear being badly wounded could not overtake him. Capt. Lewis, with seven men, immediately went in search of him, and having found his track, followed him by the blood for a mile, and found him concealed in some thick brushwood, and shot him with two balls through the skull. Though somewhat smaller than that killed a 30 few days ago, he was a monstrous animal, and a most terrible enemy; our man had shot him through the centre of the lungs, yet he had pursued him furiously for half a mile, then returned more than twice that distance, and with his talons had prepared himself a bed in the earth, two feet deep and five feet long, and was perfectly alive when they found him, which was at least two hours after he received the wound. The wonderful power of life which these animals possess renders them dreadful; their very track in the mud or sand, which we have sometimes found eleven inches long, and seven and a quarter wide, exclusive of the talons, is alarming; and we had rather encounter two Indians than meet a single brown bear. There is no chance of killing them by a single shot, unless the ball goes through the brains, and this is very difficult on account of two large muscles which cover the side of the forehead, and the sharp projection of the centre of the frontal bone, which is also thick.

Towards evening the men in the hindmost canoes discovered a large brown bear lying in the open grounds, about three hundred paces from the river; six of them, all good hunters, immediately went to attack him, and, concealing themselves by a small emi. nence, came unperceived within forty paces of him; four of the hunters now red, and each lodged a ball in his body, two of them directly through the Jungs the furious animal sprang up and ran open-mouthed upon them; as he came near, the two hunters who had reserved their fire gave him two wounds, one of which, breaking his shoulder, retarded his motion for a moment; but before they could re. load he was so near that they were obliged to run to the river, and before they reached it he had almost over

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taken them; two jumped into the ca noe; the other four separated, and concealing themselves in the willows, fired as fast as each could reload; they struck him several times, but instead of weakening the monster each shot seemed only to direct him towards the hunter, till at last he pursued two of them so closely, that they threw aside their guns and pouches, and jumped down a perpendicular bank of twenty feet into the river; the bear sprang af ter them, and was within a few feet of the hindmost, when one of the hunters on shore shot him in the head, and final ly killed him; they dragged him to the shore, and found that eight balls had passed through him in different directions.

THE GREAT FALLS.

From the draught and survey of Capt. Clarke we had now a clear and connected view of the falls, cascades, and rapids, of the Missouri.

This river is three hundred yards wide at the point where it receives the waters of Medicine river, which is one hundred and thirty-seven yards in width. The united current continues three hundred and twenty-eight poles to a small rapid on the north side, from which it gradually widens to one thousand four hundred yards, and at the distance of five hundred and forty-eight poles reaches the head of the rapids, narrowing as it approaches them. Here the hills on the north, which had with drawn from the bank, closely border the river, which, for the space of three hundred and twenty poles, makes its way over the rocks with a descent of thirty feet; in this course the current is contracted to five hundred and eighty yards, and, after throwing itself over a small pitch of five feet, forms a beautiful cascade of twenty-six feet five inches; this does not however fall immediately perpendicular, being stop. ped by a part of the rock, which pro jects at about one-third of the distance. After descending this fall, and passing the cottonwood island, on which the eagle has fixed its nest, the river goes on for five hundred and thirty-two poles over rapids and little falls, the estimated descent of which is thirteen feet six inches, till it is joined by a large fountain boiling up underneath the rocks near the edge of the river, into which it falls with a cascade of eight feet. It is of the most perfect clearness, and rather of a bluish cast;

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and even after falling into the Mis souri it preserves its colour for half a mile. From this fountain the river descends with increased rapidity for the distance of two hundred and fourteen poles, during which the estimated descent is five feet: from this, for a distance of one hundred and thirty five poles, the river descends fourteen feet seven inches, including a perpendicu lar fall of six feet seven inches. The river has now become pressed into a space of four hundred and seventythree yards, and here forms a grand cataract by falling over a plain rock the whole distance across the river to the depth of forty-seven feet eight inches: after recovering itself the Missouri then proceeds with an estimated descent of three feet, till at the distance of one hundred and two poles it again is precipitated down the Crooked falls of nineteen feet perpendicular; below this, at the mouth of a deep ravine, is a fall of five feet, after which, for the distance of nine hundred and seventy poles, the descent is much more gradual, not being more than ten feet, and then succeeds a handsome level plain for the space of one hundred and seventy-eight poles, with a computed descent of three feet, making a bend towards the north. Thence it descends, during four hundred and eighty poles, about eighteen feet and a half, when it makes a perpendicular fall of two feet, which is ninety poles beyond the great cataract, in approaching which it descends thirteen feet within two hundred yards, and gathering strength from its confined channel, which is only two hundred and eighty yards wide, rushes over the fall to the depth of eighty-seven feet and three quar. ters of an inch. After raging among the rocks and losing itself in foam, it is compressed immediately into a bed of ninety-three yards in width; it continues for three hundred and forty poles to the entrance of a run or deep ravine, where there is a fall of three feet, which, joined to the de. cline of the river during that course, makes the descent six feet. As it goes on, the descent within the next two hundred and forty poles is only four feet; from this passing a run or deep ravine the descent for four hundred poles is thirteen feet; within two hun. dred and forty poles a second descent of eighteen feet; thence one hundred

and sixty poles a descent of six feet after which to the mouth of Portage creek, a distance of two hundred and eighty poles, the descent is ten feet. From this survey and estimate it results that the river experiences a de. scent of three hundred and fifty-two feet in the course of two and threequarter miles, from the commencement of the rapids to the mouth of Portage creek, exclusive of almost impassable rapids, which extend for a mile below its entrance.

SOURCES OF THE MISSOURI AND
COLUMBIA.

The road was still plain, and, as it led them directly on towards the mountain, the stream gradually became smaller, till after going two miles it had so greatly diminished in width that one of the men in a fit of enthu siasm, with one foot on each side of the river, thanked God that he had lived to bestride the Missouri. As they went along their hopes of soon seeing the waters of the Columbia, arose almost to painful anxiety, when, after four miles from the last abrupt turn of the river, they reached a small gap form. ed by the high mountains which recede on each side, leaving room for the Indian road. From the foot of one of the lowest of these mountains, which rises with a gentle ascent of about half a mile, issues the remotest water of the Missouri. They had now reached the hidden sources of that river, which had never yet been seen by civilized man: and as they quenched their thirst at the chaste and icy fountain-as they sat down by the brink of that little rivulet, which yielded its distant and modest tribute to the parent ocean, they felt themselves re warded for all their labours and all their difficulties. They left reluctantly this interesting spot, and pur suing the Indian road through the interval of the hills, arrived at the top of a ridge, from which they saw high mountains, partially covered with snow, still to the west of them. The ridge on which they stood formed the dividing line between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. They followed a descent much steeper than that on the eastern side, and at the distance of three quarters of a mile reached a handsome bold creek of cold clear water running to the westward. They stopped to taste for the first time the waters of the Columbia; and

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after a few minutes followed the road across steep hills and low hollows, till they reached a spring on the side of a mountain; here they found a sufficient quantity of dry willow brush for fuel, and therefore halted for the night.

RAVENOUS INDIAN APPETITES.

After the hunters had been gone about an hour, Capt. Lewis again mounted with one of the Indians behind him, and the whole party set out; but just as they passed through the narrows they saw one of the spies E coming back at full speed across the plain; the chief stopped and seemed uneasy, the whole band were moved with fresh suspicions, and Capt. Lewis himself was much disconcerted, lest by some unfortunate accident some of their enemies might have perhaps straggled that way. The young In. dian had scarcely breath to say a few words as he came up, when the whole troop dashed forward as fast as their horses could carry them; and Captain Lewis, astonished at this movement, was borne along for nearly a mile before he learnt with great satisfaction that it was all caused by the spy having come to announce that one of the white men had killed a deer. Relieved from his anxiety he now found the jolting very uncomfortable; for the Indian behind him, being afraid of not getting his share of the feast, had lashed the horse at every step since they set off; he therefore reined him in and ordered the Indian to stop beating him. The fellow had no idea of losing time in disputing the point, and jumping off the horse ran for a mile at full speed, Capt. Lewis slackened his pace, and followed at a sufficient distance to observe them. When they reached the place where Drewyer had thrown out the intestines, they all dismounted in confusion, and ran tum. bling over each other like famished dogs: each tore away whatever part he could, and instantly began to eat it: some had the liver, some the kidneys, in short no part on which we are accustomed to look with disgust escaped theme of them, who had seized about nine feet of the entrails, was chewing it at one end, while with his hand he was diligently clearing his way by discharging the contents at the other. It was indeed impossible to see these wretches ravenously feeding on the filth of animals, and the blood streaming from their mouths, without

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595 deploring how nearly the condition of savages approaches that of the brute creation: yet though suffering with hunger they did not attempt, as they might have done, to take by force the whole deer, but contented themselves with what had been thrown away by the hunter. Capt. Lewis now had the deer skinned, and after reserving a quarter of it gave the rest of the animal to the chief to be divided among the Indians, who immediately devoured nearly the whole of it without cooking. They now went forward towards the creek, where there was some brushwood to make a fire, and found Drewyer, who had killed a second deer: the same struggle for the entrails was renewed here, and, on giving nearly the whole deer to the Indians they devoured it even to the soft part of the hoofs. A fire being made, Capt. Lew is had his breakfast, during which Drewyer brought in a third deer: this too, after reserving one quarter, was given to the Indians, who now seemed completely satisfied, and in a good humour.

THE MISSOURI.

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 va riety 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 de rives 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 bar

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rier 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 gradual. ly an island, and the river indemnifies itself for the usurpation by encroach. ing 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 neigh bourhood of the river till above the Sauk prairie, where they are comparatively 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 .Kanzas.

The same ridge of hills extends on the south side, in almost one unbroken chain, from the mouth of the Missouri to the Kanzas, 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 sus ceptible of cultivation, though it becomes richer on the hills beyond the Platte, and are in general thinly cover. ed 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 Kanzas. From the Kanzas 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 Kanzas 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 Kanzas up to Council bluff, fifty miles beyond the Platte; forming high prairie lands. On both sides the lands are good, and perhaps this distance from the Osage to the Platte may be recom. mended 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 re-appear 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 Ma

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