25thAugust Satturday 1804.—
A CLOUDY morning Capt. Lewis & Myself concluded
to go and See the Mound which was Viewed with Such
turror by all the different Nations in this quarter,
we Selected Shields; J. Fields, W. Bratten, Sergt. Ordway,
J. Coller, Carr, and Corpl. Worbington &
Frasure, also G.
Drewyer and droped down to the Mouth of White Stone
River, where we left the Perogue with two men and at 200
yards we
assended a riseing ground of about Sixty feet, from
the top of this High
land the Countrey is leavel & open as far
as can be Seen, except Some
few rises at a great Distance, and
the Mound which
the Indians Call Mountain of little people or
Spirits, this Mound appears of a conic form & is N. 20°. W.
from the mouth of the Creek,[1]
we left the river at 8
oClock,
at 4 miles we Crossed the Creek 23 yards wide in an extensive
Valley and Contin[u]ed on at two miles further our Dog
was so Heeted
and fatigued we was obliged [to] Send him back
to the Creek, at 12 oClock
we arrived at the hill Capt. Lewis
much fatigued from
heat the day it being verry hot & he being
in a debilitated State from
the Precautions he was obliged to
take to prevent the effects of the
Cobalt, & Min1 Substance
which had like to have
poisoned him two days ago, his want
of water, and Several of the men
complaining of Great thirst,
determined us to make for the first water
which was the Creek
in a bend N. E.
from the Mound, about 3 miles. after a
Delay of about 1 hour & a half
to recrut our party we set out
on our return down the Creek thro: the
bottom of about 1
mile in width, crossed the creek 3 times to the place we
first
struck it, where we gathered some delisious froot such as
Grapes, Plumbs, & Blue Currents after a Delay of an hour
we set
out on our back trail & arrived at the Perogue at Sun
set. We
proceeded on to the Place we Camp
d last night and
Stayed all night.
This Mound is Situated on an elivated plain in a
leavel and
extensive prarie, bearing N. 20° W. from the Mouth of White
Stone Creek nine miles, the base of the Mound is a
regular
parallelagram the long Side of which is about 300 yards in
length the Shorter 60 or 70 yards. from the longer Side of
the Base
it rises from the North & South with a Steep assent
to the hight of 65
or 70 feet, leaveing a leavel Plain on the
top of 12 feet in width &
90 in length. The North & South
part of this Mound is join[ed] by two
regular rises, each in
Oval forms of half its hight, forming three regular
rises from
the Plain the assent of each elivated part is as Suden as the
principal mound at the narrower sides of its Base.
The reagular
form of this hill would in Some measure justify
a belief that it owed its
orrigin to the hand of man; but as the
earth and loos pebbles and other
substances of which it was
Composed, bore an exact resemblance to the
Steep Ground
which border on the Creek in its neighbourhood we concluded
it was most probably the production of nature.
The only remarkable
Charactoristic of this hill admiting it
to be a natural production is that
it is insulated or Seperated a
considerable distance from any other, which
is verry unusial in
the natural order or disposition of the
hills.
The Surrounding Plains is open Void of Timber and leavel
to
a great extent, hence the wind from whatever quarter it may
blow, drives
with unusial force over the naked Plains and
against this hill; the
insects of various kinds are thus involuntaryly
driven to the Mound by the force of the wind, or fly to
its Leeward
Side for Shelter; the Small Birds whoes food they
are, Consequently resort
in great numbers to this place in
Surch of them; Perticularly the Small brown Martin of
which
we saw a vast number hovering on the Leward Side of the hill,
when we approached it in the act of catching those insects;
they
were so gentle that they did not quit the place untill we
had arriv
d within a fiew feet of them.
One evidence which the
Inds- give for believeing this place
to be the
residence of Some unusial Sperits is that they frequently
discover a large assemblage of Birds
about this Mound
[this] is in my opinion a Sufficent proof to produce in
the
Savage Mind a Confident belief of all the properties which they
ascribe [to] it.
from the top of this Mound we beheld a most
butifull landscape;
Numerous herds of
buffalow were Seen feeding in various
directions; the Plain to North N. W.
& N. E. extends without
interuption as far as Can be seen.
From
the Mound to the Mouth of Stone River is S. 20° E.
9 Miles. to the
woods near the mouth of River Jacque is
West. to the Highland near the
mouth of Soues River is S.
70°. E. to the highland opposit side or
near the Maha Town
is S. 45 E.
Some high lands to be seen from the
Mound at a Great
distance to the N. E. some nearer to the N. W. No woods
except on the Missourie Points.
if all the timber which is on the
Stone Creek was on 100
acres it would not be thickly timbered, the Soil of
those Plains
are delightfull.
Great numbers of Birds are seen in
those Plains, Such as
black bird, ren, [wren] or
Prarie burd, a kind of larke about
the sise of a Partridge with a Short
tail, &c., &c.,
