Saturday, September 8.  The wind still continued from the southeast, but moderately.  At seven miles we reached a house on the north side, called the Pawnee house, where a trader, named Trudeau, wintered in the year 1796-7:  behind this, hills, much higher than usual, appear to the north, about eight miles off.  Before reaching this house, we came by three small islands, on the north side, and a small creek on the south; and after leaving it, reached another, at the end of seventeen miles, on which we encamped, and called it Boat island:  we here saw herds of buffaloe, and some elk, deer, turkies, beaver, a squirrel, and a prairie dog.  The party on the north represent the country through which they passed, as poor, rugged, and hilly, with the appearance of having been lately burnt by the Indians; the broken hills, indeed, approach the river on both sides, though each is bordered by a strip of woodland near the water.

Sunday, September 9.  We coasted along the island on which we had encamped, and then passed three sand and willow islands, and a number of smaller sandbars.  The river is shallow, and joined by two small creeks from the north, and one from the south.  In the plains, to the south, are great numbers of buffaloe, in herds of nearly five hundred; all the copses of timber appear to contain elk or deer.  We encamped on a sandbar, on the southern shore, at the distance of fourteen and a quarter miles.

September 10, Monday.  The next day we made twenty miles.  The morning was cloudy and dark, but a light breeze from the southeast carried us past two small islands on the south, and one on the north; till, at the distance of ten and a half miles, we reached an island, extending for two miles in the middle of the river, covered with red cedar, from which it derives its name of Cedar island.  Just below this island, on a hill, to the south, is the backbone of a fish, forty-five feet long, tapering towards the tail, and in a perfect state of petrifaction, fragments of which were collected and sent to Washington.  On both sides of the river are high dark-coloured bluffs.  About a mile and a half from the island, on the southern shore, the party on that side discovered a large and very strong impregnated spring of water; and another, not so strongly impregnated, half a mile up the hill.  Three miles beyond Cedar island is a large island on the north, and a number of sandbars.  After which is another, about a mile in length, lying in the middle of the river, and separated by a small channel, at its extremity, from another above it, on which we encamped.  These two islands are called Mud islands.  The river is shallow during this day’s course, and is falling a little.  The elk and buffaloe are in great abundance, but the deer have become scarce.