or Fish river; one mile above this is another creek on the south:  we encamped on a sandbar to the south, at the distance of thirteen miles, all of which we had made with oars and poles.  Great numbers of goats are crossing the river and directing their course to the westward; we also saw a herd of buffaloe and of elk; a pelican too was killed, and six fallow deer, having found, as the Ricaras informed us, that there are none of the black-tail species as high up as this place.  The country is in general level and fine, with broken short high grounds, low timbered mounds on the river, and a rugged range of hills at a distance.

Friday 19.  We set sail with a fine morning, and a southeast wind, and at two and a half miles passed a creek on the north side:  at eleven and a half miles we came to a lake or large pond on the same side, in which were some swans.  On both banks of the Missouri are low grounds which have much more timber than lower down the river:  the hills are at one or two miles distance from the banks, and the streams which rise in them are brackish, and the mineral salts appear on the sides of the hills and edges of the runs.  In walking along the shore we counted fifty-two herds of buffaloe, and three of elk, at a single view.  Besides these we also observed elk, deer, pelicans, and wolves.  After seventeen and a half miles we encamped on the north, opposite to the uppermost of a number of round hills, forming a cone at the top, one being about ninety, another sixty feet in height, and some of less elevation.  Our chief tells us that the calumet bird lives in the holes formed by the filtration of the water from the top of these hills through the sides.  Near to one of these moles, on a point of a hill ninety feet above the plain, are the remains of an old village which is high, strong, and has been fortified; this our chief tells us is the remains of one of the Mandan villages, and are the first ruins which we have seen of that nation in ascending the Missouri:  opposite to our camp is a deep bend to the south, at the extremity of which is a pond.

Saturday 30.  We proceeded early with a southeast wind, which continued high all day, and came to a creek on the north at two miles distance, twenty yards wide.  At eight miles we reached the lower point of an island in the middle of the river, though there is no current on the south.  This island is covered with willows and extends about two miles, there being a small creek coming in from the south at its lower extremity.  After making twelve miles we encamped on the south, at the upper part of a bluff containing stone-coal of an inferior quality; immediately below this bluff and on the declivity of a hill, are the remains of a village covering six or eight acres, formerly occupied by the Mandans, who, says our Ricara chief, once lived in a number of villages on each side of the river, till the Sioux forced them forty miles higher; whence after a few years residence, they moved