The valley of the river through which we have been passing is generally a prairie from five to six miles in width, and with a cold gravelly white soil.  The timber which it possesses is almost exclusively pine, chiefly of the long-leafed kind, with some spruce, and a species of fir resembling the Scotch fir:  near the water courses are also seen a few narrow-leafed cottonwood trees, and the only underbrush is the redwood, honeysuckle, and rosebushes.  Our game was four deer, three geese, four ducks, and three prairie fowls; one of the hunters brought in a red-headed woodpecker of the large kind common in the United States, but the first of the kind we have seen since leaving the Illinois.

Tuesday, 10.  The morning being fair all the hunters were sent out, and the rest of the party employed in repairing their clothes:  two of them were sent to the junction of the river from the east, along which the Indians go to the Missouri:  it is about seven miles below Traveller’s-rest creek; the country at the forks is seven or eight miles wide, level and open, but with little timber; its course is to the north, and we incline to believe that this is the river which the Minnetarees had described to us as running from south to north along the west side of the Rocky mountains, not far from the sources of Medicine river:  there is moreover reason to suppose, that after going as far northward as the head-waters of that river it turns to the westward and joins the Tacootchetessee.  Towards evening one of the hunters returned with three Indians, whom he had met in his excursion up Traveller’s-rest creek:  as soon as they saw him they prepared to attack him with arrows, but he quieted them by laying down his gun and advancing towards them, and soon persuaded them to come to the camp.  Our Shoshonee guide could not speak the language of these people, but by the universal language of signs and gesticulations, which is perfectly intelligible among the Indians, he found that these were three Tushepaw Flatheads in pursuit of two men, supposed to be Shoshonees, who had stolen twenty-three of their horses:  we gave them some boiled venison and a few presents; such as a fishhook, a steel to strike fire, and a little powder; but they seemed better pleased with a piece of riband which we tied in the hair of each of them.  They were however in such haste, lest their horses should be carried off, that two of them set off after sunset in quest of the robbers:  the third however was persuaded to remain with us and conduct us to his relations:  these he said were numerous, and resided on the Columbia in the plain below the mountains.  From that place he added, the river was navigable to the ocean; that some of his relations had been there last fall and seen an old white man who resided there by himself, and who gave them some handkerchiefs like those we have.  The distance from this place is five sleeps or days’ journey.  When our hunters had all joined us we found our provisions consisted of four deer, a beaver, and three grouse.