h on this side of the Mandans, and these were
the white catfish, of two to five pounds. We killed a deer and a bear.
We have not seen in this quarter the black bear, common in the United
States and on the lower parts of the Missouri, nor have we discerned any
of their tracks. They may easily be distinguished by the shortness of
the talons from the brown, grizzly, or white bear, all of which seem to
be of the same species, which assumes those colors at different seasons
of the year. We halted earlier than usual, and camped on the north, in a
point of woods, at the distance of sixteen and one half miles (thus past
the site of Fort Hawley, on the south)."

Notwithstanding the advance of the season, the weather in those great
altitudes grew more and more cold. Under date of May 23, the journal
records the fact that ice appeared along the edges of the river, and
water froze upon their oars. But notwithstanding the coolness of the
nights and mornings, mosquitoes were very troublesome.

The explorers judged that the cold was somewhat unusual for that
locality, inasmuch as the cottonwood trees lost their leaves by the
frost, showing that vegetation, generally well suited to the temperature
of its country, or habitat, had been caught by an unusual nip of the
frost. The explorers noticed that the air of those highlands was so pure
and clear that objects appeared to be much nearer than they really were.
A man who was sent out to explore the country attempted to reach a ridge
(now known as the Little Rocky Mountains), apparently about fifteen
miles from the river. He travelled about ten miles, but finding himself
not halfway to the object of his search, he returned without reaching
it.

The party was now just westward of the site of the present town of
Carroll, Montana, on the Missouri. Their journal says:--

"The low grounds are narrow and without timber; the country is high and
broken; a large portion of black rock and brown sandy rock appears in
the face of the hills, the tops of which are covered with scattered
pine, spruce, and dwarf cedar; the soil is generally poor, sandy near
the tops of the hills, and nowhere producing much grass, the low grounds
being covered with little else than the hyssop, or southernwood, and the
pulpy-leaved thorn. Game is more scarce, particularly beaver, of which
we have seen but few for several days, and the abundance or scarcity
of which seems to depend on the greater or less quantity of timbe