ng in some places
six feet thick, and there are stratas of burnt earth, which are always
on the same level with those of coal. In the evening after coming
twenty-five miles we encamped at the entrance of a river which empties
itself into a bend on the north side of the Missouri: this stream which
we called Martha's river, is about fifty yards wide, with water for
fifteen yards, the banks are of earth, and steep, though not high, and
the bed principally of mud. Captain Clarke, who ascended it for three
miles, found that it continued of the same width with a gentle current,
and pursuing its course about north 30 degrees west, through an
extensive, fertile, and beautiful valley, but without a single tree. The
water is clear, and has a brownish yellow tint; at this place the
highlands which yesterday and to-day had approached so near the river
became lower, and receding from the water left a valley seven or eight
miles wide.

Tuesday 30. The wind was high from the north during last evening and
continued so this morning: we however continued, and found the river
more winding than usual and with a number of sand islands and bars, on
one of which last we encamped at the distance of twenty-four miles. The
low grounds are fertile and extensive but with very little timber, and
that cottonwood, very bad of its kind, being too small for planks, and
broken and dead at the top and unsound in the centre of the trunk. We
passed some ancient lodges of driftwood which do not appear to have been
lately inhabited. The game continues abundant: we killed the largest
male elk we have yet seen; on placing it in its natural erect position,
we found that it measured five feet three inches from the point of the
hoof to the top of the shoulder. The antelopes are yet lean and the
females are with young: this fleet and quick-sighted animal is generally
the victim of its curiosity: when they first see the hunters they run
with great velocity; if he lies down on the ground and lifts up his arm,
his hat, or his foot, the antelope returns on a light trot to look at
the object, and sometimes goes and returns two or three times till they
approach within reach of the rifle; so too they sometimes leave their
flock to go and look at the wolves who crouch down, and if the antelope
be frightened at first repeat the same manoeuvre, and sometimes relieve
each other till they decoy it from the party when they seize it. But
generally the wolves take them as they a