University of Virginia Library

Tuesday July 16th. 1805.

We had a heavy dew last night sen[t] one man back this
morning for an ax that he had carelessly left last evening some

miles below, and set out at an early hour. early this morning
we passed about 40 little booths formed of willow bushes to
shelter them from the sun; they appeared to have been
deserted about 10 days; we supposed that they were snake
Indians. they appeared to have a number of horses with
them. this appearance gives me much hope of meeting with
these people shortly. Drewyer killed a buffaloe this morning
near the river and we halted and breakfasted on it. here for
the first time I ate of the small guts of the buffaloe cooked
[Qu?] over a blazing fire in the Indian stile without any
preperation of washing or other clensing and found them very
good. After breakfast I determined to leave Capt. C. and
party, and go on to the point where the river enters the Rocky
Mountains and make the necessary observations against their
arrival; accordingly I set out with the two invalleds Potts and
LaPage and Drewyer; I passed through a very handsome
level plain on the Stard. side of the river, the country equally
level and beautifull on the opposite side; at the distance of
8 Mls. passed a small stream on which I observed a considerable
quantity of aspin. a little before 12 I halted on the river at a
Stard. bend and well timbered bottom about 4 1/2 miles below the
mountains and made the following observation.

Point of observation No. 30.

       

Observed Meridian Altd. of ☉'s. L. L. with
	56°. 38.′—″.
Octant by the back Observation.
Latitude deduced from this observation.	N. 46. 46. 50.2

after this observation we pursued our rout through a high
roling plain to a rappid immediately at the foot of the mountain
where the Missouri first enters them.[4] the current of the
missouri below these rappids is strong for several miles, tho'
just above there is scarcely any current, the river very narrow
and deep abo[u]t 70 yds. wide only and seems to be closely

hemmed in by the mountains on both sides, the bottoms only
a few yards in width. an Indian road enters the mountain at
the same place with the river on the Stard. side and continues
along it's border under the steep clifts these mountains appear
to be only about 800 feet above the river and are formed
almost entirely of a hard black grannite. with a few dwarf pine
and cedar scattered on them. at this place there is a large
rock of 400 feet high w[h]ich stands immediately in the gap
which the missouri makes on it's passage from the mountains;
it is insulated from the neighbouring mountains by a handsome
little plain which surrounds it[s] base on 3 sides and the
Missouri washes it's base on the other, leaving it on the Lard.
as it decends. this rock I called the tower. it may be ascended
with some difficulty nearly to it's summit, and from it
there is a most pleasing view of the country we are now about
to leave. from it I saw this evening immence herds of buffaloe
in the plains below. near this place we killed a fat elk on
which we both dined and suped. the Musquetoes are extreemly
troublesome this evening and I had left my bier, of
course suffered considerably, and promised in my wrath that I
never will be guil[t]y of a similar peice of negligence while on
this voyage.[5]