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History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. I. - To the Sources of the Missouri, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. - Performed During the Years 1804-5-6. by William Clark;Meriwether Lewis
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the sandbars made the river so shallow, and the wind was so high, that
we could scarcely find the channel, and at one place were forced to drag
the boat over a sandbar, the Missouri being very wide and falling a
little. At seven and a half miles we came to at a point, and remained
three hours, during which time the wind abated: we then passed within
four miles two creeks on the south, one of which we called Centinel
creek, and the other Lookout creek. This part of the river has but
little timber; the hills are not so high as we have hitherto seen, and
the number of sandbars extends the river to more than a mile in breadth.
We continued about four and a half miles further, to a sandbar in the
middle of the river, where we spent the night, our progress being
sixteen miles. On the opposite shore, we saw a house among the willows
and a boy to whom we called, and brought him on board. He proved to be a
young Frenchman in the employ of a Mr. Valle a trader, who is now here
pursuing his commerce with the Sioux.

Tuesday, October 2. There had been a violent wind from S.E. during the
night, which having moderated we set sail with Mr. Valle, who visited us
this morning and accompanied us for two miles. He is one of three French
traders who have halted here, expecting the Sioux who are coming down
from the Ricaras, where they now are, for the purposes of traffic. Mr.
Valle tells us that he passed the last winter three hundred leagues up
the Chayenne under the Black mountains. That river he represents as very
rapid, liable to sudden swells, the bed and shores formed of course
gravel, and difficult of ascent even for canoes. One hundred leagues
from its mouth it divides into two branches, one coming from the south,
the other at forty leagues from the junction enters the Black mountains.
The land which it waters from the Missouri to the Black mountains,
resembles the country on the Missouri, except that the former has even
less timber, and of that the greater proportion is cedar. The Chayennes
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