and gayety.  When they arrived at the spring on the side of the mountain where the party had encamped on the 12th, the chief insisted on halting to let the horses graze; to which captain Lewis assented and smoked with them.  They are excessively fond of the pipe, in which however they are not able to indulge much as they do not cultivate tobacco themselves, and their rugged country affords them but few articles to exchange for it.  Here they remained for about an hour, and on setting out, by engaging to pay four of the party, captain Lewis obtained permission for himself and each of his men to ride behind an Indian; but he soon found riding without stirrup more tiresome than walking, and therefore dismounted, making the Indian carry his pack.  About sunset they reached the upper part of the level valley in the cove through which he had passed, and which they now called Shoshonee cove.  The grass being burnt on the north side of the river they crossed over to the south, and encamped about four miles above the narrow pass between the hills noticed as they traversed the cove before.  The river was here about six yards wide, and frequently dammed up by the beaver.  Drewyer had been sent forward to hunt, but he returned in the evening unsuccessful, and their only supper therefore was the remaining pound of flour stirred in a little boiling water and then divided between the four white men and two of the Indians.

In order not to exhaust the strength of the men, captain Clarke did not leave his camp till after breakfast.  Although, he was scarcely half a mile below the Rattlesnake cliffs he was obliged to make a circuit of two miles by water before he reached them.  The river now passed between low and rugged mountains and cliffs formed of a mixture of limestone and a hard black rock, with no covering except a few scattered pines.  At the distance of four miles is a bold little stream which throws itself from the mountains down a steep precipice of rocks on the left.  One mile farther is a second point of rocks, and an island, about a mile beyond which is a creek on the right, ten yards wide and three feet three inches in depth, with a strong current:  we called it Willard’s creek after one of our men, Alexander Willard.  Three miles beyond this creek, after passing a high cliff on the right opposite to a steep hill, we reached a small meadow on the left bank of the river.  During its passage through these hills to Willard’s creek the river had been less torturous than usual, so that in the first six miles to Willard’s creek we had advanced four miles on our route.  We continued on for two miles, till we reached in the evening a small bottom covered with clover and a few cottonwood trees:  here we passed the night near the remains of some old Indian lodges of brush.  The river is as it has been for some days shallow and rapid; and our men, who are for hours together in the river, suffer not only from fatigue, but from the extreme coldness of the water, the temperature of which is as low as that of the freshest springs in our country.  In walking along the side of the river, captain Clarke was very near being bitten twice by rattlesnakes, and the Indian woman narrowly escaped the same misfortune.  We caught a number of fine trout; but the only game procured to-day was a buck, which had a peculiarly bitter taste, proceeding probably from its favourite food, the willow.