Thursday, 2d.  The wind continued high during the night, and at daylight it began to snow and did not stop till ten o’clock, when the ground was covered an inch deep, forming a striking contrast with the vegetation which is now considerably advanced; some flowers having put forth, and the cottonwood leaves as large as a dollar.  The wind lulled about five o’clock in the afternoon, and we then proceeded along wide fertile low grounds and high level plains, and encamped at the distance of four miles.  Our game to-day was deer, elk, and buffaloe:  we also procured three beaver who are quite gentle, as they have not been hunted, but when the hunters are in pursuit they never leave their huts during the day:  this animal we esteem a great delicacy, particularly the tail, which when boiled resembles in flavor the flesh tongues and sounds of the codfish, and is generally so large as to afford a plentiful meal for two men.  One of the hunters in passing near an old Indian camp found several yards of scarlet cloth, suspended on the bough of a tree as a sacrifice to the deity by the Assiniboins:  the custom of making these offerings being common among that people as indeed among all the Indians on the Missouri.  The air was sharp this evening; the water froze on the oars as we rowed, and in the morning.

Friday, 3d, the weather became quite cold, the ice was a quarter of an inch thick in the kettle, and the snow still continued on the hills though it has melted from the plains.  The wind too continued high from the west, but not so violently as to prevent our going on.  At two miles from our encampment we passed a curious collection of bushes about thirty feet high and ten or twelve in diameter, tied in the form of a fascine and standing on end in the middle of the low ground:  this too we supposed to have been left by the Indians as a religious sacrifice:  at twelve o’clock the usual hour we halted for dinner.  The low grounds on the river are much wider than common, sometimes extending from five to nine miles to the highlands, which are much lower than heretofore, not being more than fifty or sixty feet above the lower plain:  through all this valley traces of the ancient bed of the river are every where visible, and since the hills have become lower, the stratas of coal, burnt earth, and pumicestone have in a great measure ceased, there being in fact none to-day.  At the distance of fourteen miles we reached the mouth of a river on the north, which from the unusual number of porcupines near it, we called Porcupine river.  This is a bold and beautiful stream one hundred and twelve yards wide, though the water is only forty yards at its entrance:  captain Clarke who ascended it several miles and passed it above where it enters the highlands, found it continued nearly of the same width and about knee deep, and as far as he could distinguish for twenty miles from the hills, its course was from a little to the east of north.  There was much timber on the low grounds: