south 30 degrees west.  It is also more divided and serpentine in its course than the other two, and possesses more timber in its meadows.  This timber consists almost exclusively of the narrow-leafed cottonwood, with an inter-mixture of box alder and sweet-willow, the underbrush being thick and like that of the Missouri lower down.  A range of high mountains partially covered with snow is seen at a considerable distance running from south to west, and nearly all around us are broken ridges of country like that below, through which those united streams appear to have forced their passage:  after observing the country captain Lewis descended to breakfast.  We then left the mouth of the southeast fork, to which in honour of the secretary of the treasury we called Gallatin’s river, and at the distance of half a mile reached the confluence of the southwest and middle branch of the Missouri.  Here we found the letter from captain Clarke, and as we agreed with him that the direction of the southwest fork gave it a decided preference over the others, we ascended that branch of the river for a mile, and encamped in a level handsome plain on the left:  having advanced only seven miles.  Here we resolved to wait the return of captain Clarke, and in the meantime make the necessary celestial observations, as this seems an essential point in the geography of the western world, and also to recruit the men and air the baggage.  It was accordingly all unloaded and stowed away on shore.  Near the three forks we saw many collections of the mud-nests of the small martin attached to the smooth faces of the limestone rock, where they were sheltered by projections of the rock above it:  and in the meadows were numbers of the duck or mallard with their young, who are now nearly grown.  The hunters returned towards evening with six deer, three otter and a muskrat; and had seen great numbers of antelopes, and much sign of the beaver and elk.

During all last night captain Clarke had a high fever and chills accompanied with great pain.  He however pursued his route eight miles to the middle branch, where not finding any fresh Indian track he came down it and joined us about three o’clock, very much exhausted with fatigue and the violence of his fever.  Believing himself bilious he took a dose of Rush’s pills, which we have always found sovereign in such cases, and bathing the lower extremities in warm water.

We are now very anxious to see the Snake Indians.  After advancing for several hundred miles into this wild and mountainous country, we may soon expect that the game will abandon us.  With no information of the route we may be unable to find a passage across the mountains when we reach the head of the river, at least such a one as will lead us to the Columbia, and even were we so fortunate as to find a branch of that river, the timber which we have hitherto seen in these mountains does not promise us any fit to make canoes, so that our chief dependence is on meeting some tribe from whom we may procure horses.  Our consolation is, that this southwest branch can scarcely head with any other river than the Columbia, and that if any nation of Indians can live in the mountains we are able to endure as much as they, and have even better means of procuring subsistence.