he Sioux Indians, Eaneahwadepon, or
Stone river; and by the French, Petite Riviere des Sioux, or Little
Sioux river. At its confluence it is eighty yards wide. Our interpreter,
Mr. Durion, who has been to the sources of it, and knows the adjoining
country, says that it rises within about nine miles of the river
Desmoines; that within fifteen leagues of that river it passes through a
large lake nearly sixty miles in circumference, and divided into two
parts by rocks which approach each other very closely: its width is
various: it contains many islands, and is known by the name of the Lac
d'Esprit: it is near the Dogplains, and within four days march of the
Mahas. The country watered by it, is open and undulating, and may be
visited in boats up the river for some distance. The Desmoines, he adds,
is about eighty yards wide where the Little Sioux river approaches it:
it is shoaly, and one of its principal branches is called Cat river. Two
miles beyond this river is a long island which we called Pelican island,
from the numbers of that animal which were feeding on it: one of these
being killed, we poured into his bag five gallons of water. An elk, too,
was shot, and we had again to remark that snakes are rare in this part
of the Missouri. A meridian altitude near the Little Sioux river made
the latitude 41 degrees 42' 34". We encamped on the north, having come
sixteen miles.

August 9. A thick fog detained us until past seven o'clock, after which
we proceeded with a gentle breeze from the southeast. After passing two
sandbars we reached, at seven and a half miles, a point of highland on
the left, near which the river has forced itself a channel across a
peninsula, leaving on the right a circuit of twelve or eighteen miles,
which is now recognised by the ponds and islands it contains. At
seventeen and a half miles, we reached a point on the north, where we
encamped. The hills are at a great distance from the river for the last
several days; the land, on both sides low, and covered with cottonwood
and abundance of grape vines. An elk was seen to-day, a turkey also
shot, and near our camp is a beaver den: the musquitoes have been more
troublesome than ever for the two last days.

August 10. At two and a half miles, we came to a place, called Coupee a
Jacques, where the river has found a new bed, and abridged a circuit of
several miles: at twelve and a half miles, a cliff of yellow stone on
the left. This is the first highland