26th. of April
Friday 1805
last night was verry cold. the Thermometer stood
at 32
abov 0 this morning. I set out at an early hour, as it was
cold I walked on the bank, & in my walk Shot a beaver & 2
Deer, one of the Deer in tolerable order, the low bottom of
the
river is generaly covered with wood[,] willows & rose
bushes, red
berry, wild cherry & red or arrow wood intersperced
with glades The timber is
Cottonwood principally,
Elm small ash also furnish a portion of the
timber. The clay
of the bluffs appear much whiter than below, and contain
several Stratums of coal, on the hill sides I observe pebbles
of
different size & colour. The river has been riseing for
several days,
& raised 3 inches last night, at 12 oClock
arrived at the forks of the
Roche Johne & Missouri and
formed a camp on the point. Soon after
George Drewyer
came from Capt Lewis & informed me
that he was a little way
up the Rochejohne and would join me this evining,
I sent
a canoe up to Capt Lewis and proceeded [to]
measure the
width of the [river], and find the debth. The Missouri is
520 yards wide above the point of Yellow Stone and the water
covers
330 yards, the YellowStone River is 858 yards wide
includeing its sand
bar, the water covers 297 yards and the
deepest part is 12 feet water, it
is at this time falling, the
Missouri rising The Indians inform that the
Yellow Stone
River is navagable for Perogues to near its source in the
Rocky
Mountains, it has many tributary streams, principally on
the
S.E. side, and heads at no great distance from the Missouri,
the largest rivers which fall into it is
Tongue river
which heads with the waters of River Platt, and Bighorn river
which also heads with Platt & Tongue R the current of this
river
is said to be rapid near its mouth it is verry jentle, and
its water is of
a whitish colour much clearer of Sediment than
the Missouri, the Countrey
on this river is said to be broken
in its whole course & contains a
great deel of wood, the
countrey about its mouth is verry fine, the
bottoms on either
side is wooded with Cotton wood, ash, Elm, &c. near the
banks of the river back is higher bottoms and
covered with
red berry, Goose berry & rose bushes &. interspersed
with
small open Glades, and near the
high land is Generally open
rich bottoms. at our arrival at the forks I
observed a Drove
of Buffalow Cows & Calves on a sand bar in the point,
I
directed the men to kill the fattest Cox, and 3 or 4 calves,
which
they did and let the others pass, the cows are poor,
calves fine
veele.
Course & Distance 26th. of April
| S. 45°. E |
2
1/2 |
miles to a point of wood land on the Starboard
Side |
| S. 40°. W. |
1
1/2 |
miles on the S. pt. a bluff
opposit |
| N. 75°.
W. |
3 |
miles to the commencement of a wood bottom in a
bend to the Std.
Side |
| South |
1 |
mile to the
junction of Rochejhone or yellowstone
River & the
Mis[s]ouri |
|
8 |
|
Capt Lewis joined me in the evening after takeing equal
altitudes a
little way up the Yellowstone river the countrey
in every direction is
plains except the moul[d] bottoms of the
river, which are covered with
some indifferent timber such as
Cotton wood, Elm & small ash, with
different kind of S[h]rubs
& bushes on the forks about 1 mile from the
point at which
place the 2 rivers are near each other a butifull low
leavel
plain commences, and extends up the Missouri & back, this
plain is narrow at its commencement and widens as the Missouri
bends north, and is bordered by an
extencive wood land
for many miles up the Yellow Stone river, this low
plain is
not Subject to over flow, appear to be a fiew inches above high
water mark and affords a butifull commanding situation for a
fort
near the commencement of the Prarie, about [blank
space in MS.] miles from
the Point & [blank space in MS.]
yards from the Missouri a small lake
is Situated, from this
lake the plain rises gradually to a high butifull
countrey, the
low Plain continues for some distance up both rivers on the
Yellow Stone it is wide & butifull opsd. the point
on the S.
Side is some high timbered land, about 1 1/2 miles below on
the same side a little distance from the water is an elivated
plain.
Several of the party was up the Yellow Stone R several
miles, &
informed that it meandered through a butifull countrey
Joseph Fields discovered a large creek falling into
the
Yellowstone River on the S E. Side 8 miles up near which he
saw
a big horned animal, he found in the Prarie the horn of
one of those
animals which was large and appeared to have
laid several years I Saw
maney buffalow dead on the banks of
the river in different places some of
them eaten by the white
bears & wolves all except the skin &
bones, others entire,
those animals either drounded in attempting to cross
on the
ice dureing the winter or swiming across to bluff banks where
they could not get out & too weak to return we saw several
in
this Situation. emence numbers of antelopes in the forks
of the river,
Buffalow & Elk & Deer is also plenty. beaver
is in every bend. I
observe that the Magpie Goose duck &
Eagle all have their nests in the
Same neighbourhood, and it
is not uncommon for the Magpie to build in a
few rods of the
eagle, the nests of this bird is built verry strong with
sticks
covered verry thickly with one or more places through which
they enter or escape, the Goose I make no doubt falls a pray
to
those vicious eagles
