the sun shone on the snows of their
summits, he obtained a clear and satisfactory view of those mountains
which close on the Missouri the passage to the Pacific."

As they continued to ascend the Missouri they found themselves
confronted by many considerable rapids which sometimes delayed their
progress. They also set forth this observation: "The only animals we
have observed are the elk, the bighorn, and the hare common to
this country." Wayfarers across the plains now call this hare the
jack-rabbit. The river soon became very rapid with a marked descent,
indicating their nearness to its mountain sources. The journal says:--

"Its general width is about two hundred yards; the shoals are more
frequent, and the rocky points at the mouths of the gullies more
troublesome to pass. Great quantities of stone lie in the river and on
its bank, and seem to have fallen down as the rain washed away the clay
and sand in which they were imbedded. The water is bordered by high,
rugged bluffs, composed of irregular but horizontal strata of yellow
and brown or black clay, brown and yellowish-white sand, soft
yellowish-white sandstone, and hard dark brown freestone; also, large
round kidney-formed irregular separate masses of a hard black ironstone,
imbedded in the clay and sand; some coal or carbonated wood also
makes its appearance in the cliffs, as do its usual attendants, the
pumice-stone and burnt earth. The salts and quartz are less abundant,
and, generally speaking, the country is, if possible, more rugged and
barren than that we passed yesterday; the only growth of the hills being
a few pine, spruce, and dwarf cedar, interspersed with an occasional
contrast, once in the course of some miles, of several acres of level
ground, which supply a scanty subsistence for a few little cottonwoods."

But, a few days later, the party passed out of this inhospitable region,
and, after passing a stream which they named Thompson's (now Birch)
Creek, after one of their men, they were glad to make this entry in
their diary:

"Here the country assumed a totally different aspect: the hills retired
on both sides from the river, which spreads to more than three times
its former size, and is filled with a number of small handsome islands
covered with cottonwood. The low grounds on its banks are again wide,
fertile, and enriched with trees: those on the north are particularly
wide, the hills being comparatively low, and opening into three large
va