rning.

CHAPTER XI.

Description and romantic appearance of the Missouri at the junction
of the Medicine river--the difficulty of transporting the baggage
at the falls--the party employed in the construction of a boat of
skins--the embarrassments they had to encounter for want of proper
materials--during the work the party much troubled by white
bears--violent hail-storm, and providential escape of captain
Clarke and his party--description of a remarkable
fountain--singular explosion heard from the Black mountains--the
boat found to be insufficient, and the serious disappointment of
the party--captain Clarke undertakes to repair the damage by
building canoes, and accomplishes the task.

On the 19th, captain Clarke not being able to find the bear mentioned in
the last chapter, spent the day in examining the country both above and
below the Whitebear islands, and concluded that the place of his
encampment would be the best point for the extremity of the portage. The
men were therefore occupied in drying the meat to be left here. Immense
numbers of buffaloe are every where round, and they saw a summer duck
which is now sitting. The next morning, 20th, he crossed the level
plain, fixed stakes to mark the route of the portage, till he passed a
large ravine which would oblige us to make the portage farther from the
river: after this there being no other obstacle he went to the river
where he had first struck it, and took its courses and distances down to
the camp. From the draught and survey of captain Clarke, we had now a
clear and connected view of the falls, cascades, and rapids of the
Missouri.

This river is three hundred yards wide at the point where it receives
the waters of Medicine river, which is one hundred and thirty-seven
yards in width. The united current continues three hundred and
twenty-eight poles to a small rapid on the north side, from which it
gradually widens to one thousand four hundred yards, and at the distance
of five hundred and forty-eight poles reaches the head of the rapids,
narrowing as it approaches them. Here the hills on the north which had
withdrawn from the bank closely border the river, which, for the space
of three hundred and twenty poles, makes its way over the rocks with a
descent of thirty feet: in this course the current is contracted to five
hundred and eighty yards, and after throwing