fiocky Mountains. 113 



the troops on the Missouri, and might be exposed to insults 

 and depredations, from some of the numerous tribes of In- 

 dians. Accordingly, on application to colonel Morgan, a 

 boat and fifteen men, under the command of lieutenant Fields, 

 were detailed for this duty, and directed to regulate their move- 

 ments agreeably to the orders of the commanding officer of the 

 exploring expedition. These men were furnished with pro- 

 visions for sixty days, and having embarked on board a keel 

 boat, called the Gen. Smith, they sailed in company with 

 the Western Engineer. A favourable wind springing up, 

 we proceeded in the course of the day about twenty-three 

 miles, and encamped at night near the entrance of a small 

 stream called Independence Creek. A little above, and on 

 the south side of the river, is the site of an old Konza town, 

 called formerly the village of the Twenty- Four. Above 

 Cow Island the Missouri is more serpentine in direction than 

 below, and the difficulties of the navigation we found by no 

 means diminished as we ascended. The bed of the river, in 

 many places, is broad, and the water distributed into small 

 channels separated by sandbars. About fifty miles above 

 Cow Island we passed a spot that had lately been occupied 

 as a hunting camp by captain Martin, who had been here to 

 procure the requisite provisions for the subsistence of his 

 party. 



At the Yellow Banks we found the bluffs elevated about 

 one hundred and fifty feet above the surface of the valley. 

 Barometric observations, several times repeated, gave nearly 

 the same result at some points below. One hundred and fifty 

 feet may, therefore, be assumed as the medium depth of the 

 immediate vallev of the Missouri ; its aggregate width, for 

 the first five hundred miles above the Mississippi, may be 

 estimated at about three miles. The corresponding appear- 

 ances in the strata of the opposite sides of this valley, as well 

 as its entire form and character, indicate it to have been 

 formed by the river. But far more than that vast body of 



vol. i. 15 



