the island a river empties itself from the north:  it is called Warreconne, or Elk Shed their Horns, and is about thirty-five yards wide:  the island itself is named Carp island by Evans, a former traveller.  As we proceeded there were great numbers of goats on the banks of the river, and we soon after saw large flocks of them in the water:  they had been gradually driven into the river by the Indians who now lined the shore so as to prevent their escape, and were firing on them, while sometimes boys went into the river and killed them with sticks:  they seemed to be very successful, for we counted fifty-eight which they had killed.  We ourselves killed some, and then passing the lodges to which these Indians belonged, encamped at the distance of half a mile on the south, having made fourteen and a half miles.  We were soon visited by numbers of these Ricaras, who crossed the river hallooing and singing:  two of them then returned for some goats’ flesh and buffaloe meat dried and fresh, with which they made a feast that lasted till late at night, and caused much music and merriment.

Wednesday 17th.  The weather was pleasant:  we passed a low ground covered with small timber on the south, and barren hills on the north which come close to the river; the wind from the northwest then become so strong that we could not move after ten o’clock, until late in the afternoon, when we were forced to use the towline, and we therefore made only six miles.  We all went out hunting and examining the country.  The goats, of which we see large flocks coming to the north bank of the river, spend the summer, says Mr. Gravelines, in the plains east of the Missouri, and at the present season are returning to the Black mountains, where they subsist on leaves and shrubbery during the winter, and resume their migrations in the spring.  We also saw buffaloe, elk, and deer, and a number of snakes; a beaver house too was seen, and we caught a whippoorwill of a small and uncommon kind:  the leaves are fast falling; the river wider than usual and full of sandbars:  and on the sides of the hills are large stones, and some rock of a brownish colour in the southern bend below us.  Our latitude by observation was 46 degrees 23’ 57”.

Thursday 18.  After three miles we reached the mouth of Le Boulet or Cannonball river:  this stream rises in the Black mountains, and falls into the Missouri on the south; its channel is about one hundred and forty yards wide, though the water is now confined within forty, and its name is derived from the numbers of perfectly round large stones on the shore and in the bluffs just above.  We here met with two Frenchmen in the employ of Mr. Gravelines, who had been robbed by the Mandans of their traps, furs, and other articles, and were descending the river in a periogue, but they turned back with us in expectation of obtaining redress through our means.  At eight miles is a creek on the north, about twenty-eight yards wide, rising in the northeast, and called Chewah