Opposite is a creek on the south about ten yards wide, which waters a
plain where there are great numbers of the prickley pear, which name we
gave to the creek. We encamped on the south, opposite the upper
extremity of the island, having made an excellent day's sail of twenty
six and a quarter miles. Our game this day consisted chiefly of deer, of
these four were black tails, one a buck with two main prongs of horns on
each side and forked equally. Large herds of buffaloe, elk and goats,
were also seen.

Thursday, September 20. Finding we had reached the Big Bend, we
despatched two men with our only horse across the neck, to hunt there
and wait our arrival at the first creek beyond it. We then set out with
fair weather and the wind from S.E. to make the circuit of the bend.
Near the lower island the sandbars are numerous, and the river shallow.
At nine and a half miles is a sand island, on the southern side. About
ten miles beyond it is a small island on the south, opposite to a small
creek on the north. This island, which is near the N.W. extremity of the
bend, is called Solitary island. At about eleven miles further, we
encamped on a sandbar, having made twenty-seven and a half miles.
Captain Clarke, who early this morning had crossed the neck of the bend,
joined us in the evening. At the narrowest part, the gorge is composed
of high and irregular hills of about one hundred and eighty or one
hundred and ninety feet in elevation; from this descends an unbroken
plain over the whole of the bend, and the country is separated from it
by this ridge. Great numbers of buffaloe, elk, and goats are wandering
over these plains, accompanied by grouse and larks. Captain Clarke saw a
hare also, on the Great Bend. Of the goats killed to-day, one is a
female differing from the male in being smaller in size; its horns too
are smaller and straighter, having one short prong, and no black about
the neck: none of these goats have any beard, but are delicately formed,