September 13, Thursday. We made twelve miles to-day through a number of
sandbars, which make it difficult to find the proper channel. The hills
on each side are high, and separated from the river by a narrow plain on
its borders. On the north, these lowlands are covered in part with
timber, and great quantities of grapes, which are now ripe: on the south
we found plenty of plums, but they are not yet ripe; and near the dark
bluffs, a run tainted with allum and copperas; the southern side being
more strongly impregnated with minerals than the northern. Last night
four beaver were caught in the traps; a porcupine was shot as it was
upon a cottontree, feeding on its leaves and branches. We encamped on
the north side, opposite to a small willow island. At night the
musquitoes were very troublesome, though the weather was cold and rainy
and the wind from the northwest.

Friday, September 14. At two miles we reached a round island on the
northern side; at about five, a run on the south; two and a half miles
further, a small creek; and at nine miles encamped near the month of a
creek, on the same side. The sandbars are very numerous, and render the
river wide and shallow, and obliged the crew to get into the water and
drag the boat over the bars several times. During the whole day we
searched along the southern shore, and at some distance into the
interior, to find an ancient volcano which we heard at St. Charles was
somewhere in this neighbourhood; but we could not discern the slightest
appearance of any thing volcanic. In the course of their search the
party shot a buck-goat and a hare. The hills, particularly on the south,
continue high, but the timber is confined to the islands and banks of
the river. We had occasion here to observe the rapid undermining of
these hills by the Missouri: the first attacks seem to be on the hills
which overhang the river; as soon as the violence of the current
destroys the grass at the foot of them, the whole texture appears