sixteen or eighteen miles in diameter. On entering this cove the
river bends to the northwest, and bathes the foot of the hills to the
right. At this place they halted for the night on the right side of the
river, and having lighted a fire of dry willow brush, the only fuel
which the country affords, supped on a deer. They had travelled to-day
thirty miles by estimate: that is ten to the Rattlesnake cliff, fifteen
to the forks of Jefferson river, and five to their encampment. In this
cove some parts of the low grounds are tolerably fertile, but much the
greater proportion is covered with prickly pear, sedge, twisted grass,
the pulpy-leafed thorn, southern-wood, and wild sage, and like the
uplands have a very inferior soil. These last have little more than the
prickly pear and the twisted or bearded grass, nor are there in the
whole cove more than three or four cottonwood trees, and those are
small. At the apparent extremity of the bottom above, and about ten
miles to the westward, are two perpendicular cliffs rising to a
considerable height on each side of the river, and at this distance seem
like a gate. In the meantime we proceeded at sunrise, and found the
river not so rapid as yesterday, though more narrow and still very
crooked, and so shallow that we were obliged to drag the canoes over
many ripples in the course of the day. At six and a half miles we had
passed eight bends on the north, and two small bayous on the left, and
came to what the Indians call the Beaver's-head, a steep rocky cliff
about one hundred and fifty feet high, near the right side of the river.
Opposite to this at three hundred yards from the water is a low cliff
about fifty feet in height, which forms the extremity of a spur of the
mountain about four miles distant on the left. At four o'clock we were
overtaken by a heavy shower of rain, attended with thunder, lightning
and hail. The party were defended from the hail by covering themselves
with willow bushes, but they got completely wet, and in this situation,
as soon as the rain ceased, continued till we encamped. This we did at a
low bluff on the left, after passing in the course of six and a half
miles, four islands and eighteen bends on the right, and a low bluff
and several bayous on the same side. We had now come thirteen miles, yet
were only four on our route towards the mountains. The game seems to be
declining, for our hunters procured only a single deer, though we found
another for us