d
secured in a thick copse of willow bushes. We now began to form a cache
or place of deposit and to dry our goods and other articles which
required inspection. The wagons too are completed. Our hunters brought
us ten deer, and we shot two out of a herd of buffaloe that came to
water at the sulphur spring. There is a species of gooseberry growing
abundantly among the rocks on the sides of the cliffs: it is now ripe,
of a pale red colour, about the size of the common gooseberry, and like
it is an ovate pericarp of soft pulp enveloping a number of small
whitish coloured seeds, and consisting of a yellowish slimy mucilaginous
substance, with a sweet taste; the surface of the berry is covered with
a glutinous adhesive matter, and its fruit though ripe retains its
withered corolla. The shrub itself seldom rises more than two feet high,
is much branched, and has no thorns. The leaves resemble those of the
common gooseberry except in being smaller, and the berry is supported by
separate peduncles or footstalks half an inch long. There are also
immense quantities of grasshoppers of a brown colour in the plains, and
they no doubt contribute to the lowness of the grass, which is not
generally more than three inches high, though it is soft, narrow-leafed
and affords a fine pasture for the buffaloe.

Wednesday 19. The wind blew violently to-day, as it did yesterday, and
as it does frequently in this open country, where there is not a tree to
break or oppose its force. Some men were sent for the meat killed
yesterday which fortunately had not been discovered by the wolves.
Another party went to Medicine river in quest of elk, which we hope may
be induced to resort there, from there being more wood in that
neighborhood than on the Missouri. All the rest were occupied in packing
the baggage and mending their moccasins, in order to prepare for the
portage. We caught a number of the white fish, but no catfish or trout.
Our poor Indian woman, who had recovered so far as to walk out,
imprudently ate a quantity of the white apple, which with some dried
fish occasioned a return of her fever.

The meridian altitude of the sun's lower limb, as observed with octant
by back observation, was 53 degrees 15', giving as the latitude of our
camp, 47 degrees 8' 59" 5"'.

Thursday 20. As we were desirous of getting meat enough to last us
during the portage, so that the men might not be diverted from their
labour to look for food, we sent out four h