quantities of beaver, but had lost much of their game by fires from the
prairies. They told us that the Kanzas nation is now hunting buffaloe in
the plains, having passed the last winter in this river. Two miles
further, we reached on the south Little Manitou creek, which takes its
name from a strange figure resembling the bust of a man, with the horns
of a stag, painted on a projecting rock, which may represent some spirit
or deity. Near this is a sandbar extending several miles, which renders
the navigation difficult, and a small creek called Sand creek on the
south, where we stopped for dinner, and gathered wild cresses and tongue
grass from the sandbar. The rapidity of the currents added to our having
broken our mast, prevented our going more than twelve and a half miles.
The scouts and hunters whom we always kept out, report that they have
seen fresh tracks of Indians. The next morning we left our camp, which
was on the south side, opposite to a large island in the middle of the
river, and at five miles reached a creek on the north side, of about
twenty yards wide, called Split Rock creek, from a fissure in the point
of a neighbouring rock. Three miles beyond this, on the south is Saline
river, it is about thirty yards wide, and has its name from the number
of salt licks, and springs, which render its water brackish; the river
is very rapid and the banks falling in. After leaving Saline creek, we
passed one large island and several smaller ones, having made fourteen
miles. The water rose a foot during the last night.

The next day, June 7, we passed at four and a half miles Big Manitou
creek, near which is a limestone rock inlaid with flint of various
colours, and embellished, or at least covered with uncouth paintings of
animals and inscriptions. We landed to examine it, but found the place
occupied by a nest of rattlesnakes, of which we killed three. We also
examined some licks and springs of salt water, two or three miles up
this creek. We then proceeded by some small willow islands, and encamped