and the vegetation seems to have advanced but little since the twenty-eighth of last month:  the game is as abundant as usual.  The bald-eagles, of whom we see great numbers, probably feed on the carcases of dead animals, for on the whole Missouri we have seen neither the blue-crested fisher, nor the fishing-hawks, to supply them with their favourite food, and the water of the river is so turbid that no bird which feeds exclusively on fish can procure a subsistence.

Wednesday 8.  A light breeze from the east carried us sixteen miles, till we halted for dinner at the entrance of a river on the north.  Captain Clarke who had walked on the south, on ascending a high point opposite to its entrance discovered a level and beautiful country which it watered; that its course for twelve or fifteen miles was N.W. when it divided into two nearly equal branches, one pursuing a direction nearly north, the other to the W. of N.W:  its width at the entrance is one hundred and fifty yards, and on going three miles up, captain Lewis found it to be of the same breadth, and sometimes more; it is deep, gentle, and has a large quantity of water; its bed is principally of mud, the banks abrupt, about twelve feet in height, and formed of a dark, rich loam and blue clay; the low grounds near it are wide and fertile, and possess a considerable proportion of cottonwood and willow.  It seems to be navigable for boats and canoes, and this circumstance joined to its course and the quantity of water, which indicates that it passes through a large extent of country, we are led to presume that it may approach the Saskashawan and afford a communication with that river.  The water has a peculiar whiteness, such as might be produced by a tablespoon full of milk in a dish of tea, and this circumstance induced us to call it Milk river.  In the evening we had made twenty-seven miles, and encamped on the south.  The country on that side consists in general of high broken hills, with much gray, black and brown granite scattered over the surface of the ground.  At a little distance from the river there is no timber on either side, the wood being confined as below to the margin of the river; so that unless the contrary is particularly mentioned, it is always understood that the upland is perfectly naked, and that we consider the low grounds well timbered if even a fifth be covered with wood.  The wild liquorice is found in great abundance on these hills, as is also the white apple.  As usual we are surrounded by buffaloe, elk, common and blacktailed deer, beaver, antelopes and wolves.  We observed a place where an Indian had recently taken the hair off an antelope’s skin, and some of the party thought they distinguished imperfectly some smoke and Indian lodges up Milk river, marks which we are by no means desirous of realizing, as the Indians are probably Assiniboins, and might be very troublesome.