part of the evening we had passed through a low range of mountains, and the country became more open, though still unbroken and without timber, and the lowlands not very extensive:  and just above our camp the river is again closed in by the mountains.  We found on the banks an elk which captain Clarke had left us, with a note mentioning that he should pass the mountains just above us and wait our arrival at some convenient place.  We saw but could not procure some redheaded ducks and sandhill cranes along the sides of the river, and a woodpecker about the size of the lark-woodpecker, which seems to be a distinct species:  it is as black as a crow with a long tail, and flies like a jaybird.  The whole country is so infested by the prickly pear that we could scarcely find room to lie down at our camp.

Captain Clarke on setting out this morning had gone through the valley about six miles to the right of the river.  He soon fell into an old Indian road which he pursued till he reached the Missouri, at the distance of eighteen miles from his last encampment, just above the entrance of a large creek, which we afterwards called Whiteearth creek.  Here he found his party so much cut and pierced with the sharp flint and the prickly pear that he proceeded only a small distance further, and then halted to wait for us.  Along his track he had taken the precaution to strew signals, such as pieces of cloth, paper and linen, to prove to the Indians, if by accident they met his track, that we were white men.  But he observed a smoke some distance ahead, and concluded that the whole country had now taken the alarm.

Sunday 21.  On leaving our camp we passed an island at half a mile, and reached at one mile a bad rapid at the place where the river leaves the mountain:  here the cliffs are high and covered with fragments of broken rocks, the current is also strong, but although more rapid the river is wider and shallower, so that we are able to use the pole occasionally, though we principally depend on the towline.  On leaving this rapid which is about half a mile in extent, the country opens on each side; the hills become lower; at one mile is a large island on the left side, and four and a half beyond it a large and bold creek twenty-eight yards wide, coming in from the north, where it waters a handsome valley:  we called it Pryor’s creek after one of the sergeants, John Pryor.  At a mile above this creek on the left side of the Missouri we obtained a meridian altitude, which gave 46 degrees 10’ 32” 9"’ as the latitude of the place.  For the following four miles, the country, like that through which we passed during the rest of the day, is rough and mountainous as we found it yesterday; but at the distance of twelve miles, we came towards evening into a beautiful plain ten or twelve miles wide and extending as far the eye could reach.  This plain or rather valley is bounded by two nearly parallel ranges of high mountains whose summits are partially covered with snow, below which