1 96 Expedition to the 



productive of all this disease, are not distinctly known, 

 although there are many supposed ones to which it has been 

 imputed. But it was generally remarked that the hunters, 

 who were much employed in their avocation, and almost 

 constantly absent from Camp Missouri, escaped the malady. 



On the 19th Mr. Immel, of the Missouri Fur Company, 

 returned from an expedition to the Sioux. During his 

 stay in the vicinity of the pseudo volcanoes, which occur 

 on the banks of the Missouri, a tremendous subterranean ex- 

 plosion occurred, which much alarmed the Indians, as well 

 as the whites ; the concussion was succeeded by a large 

 volume of dense smoke from the aperture of the volcano, by 

 the sinking in of a portion of the hill in the rear, and by the 

 cracking of the ice in the river. Messrs., Peale, Swift, and 

 Dougherty departed in a periogue yesterday, on their way 

 to the Bowyer creek to hunt. 



An igneous meteor, or Jack o' lantern was seen on the 

 evening of the 20th, near our cantonment ; it was described 

 to me as of the size of a double fist, with a caudate appendage 

 or tail of the length of about two feet ; it emitted a light of the 

 colour of the flame of burning sulphur ; it passed along the 

 river shore nearlv over the observer's head, at but a very 

 small elevation, nearly in a right line, with an equable mo- 

 tion, about as rapid as the flight of a bird, and with an au- 

 dible sound like the blowing of a moderate stream of air 

 through a thicket ; it was visible about one half a minute, 

 when it crossed the river, became paler, and disappeared. 



The waters of the Missouri have been as clear during the 

 winter as ordinary rivers ; the earthy matter, which they hold 

 in suspension during the temperate and warm weather, and 

 which every person, who views the river, remarks as charac- 

 teristic of its waters, subsides as soon as the wintry tem- 

 perature occurs, but is again renewed in the Spring. They 

 have been gradually more and more turbid, these two or 

 three days past. The ice in the river broke up on the 29th 

 lilt., and entirely disappeared on the 19th instant. 



