EARLY IOWA LOCALITY RECORDS 
107 
1806,® will give 401/2 miles as this distance if the ‘‘5th’^ is sub- 
stituted for the ‘'4th” of August (a manifest error) on page 
379. As noted these slight variations do not affect the general 
conclusion, and it is evident that the Council Blu;ff was not lo- 
cated near the present city of Council Bluffs. 
No fluctuations in the course of the Missouri could account 
for the great difference in distance, and moreover, the Lewis 
and Clark record of courses and distances has made it possi- 
ble to retrace the old course of the river, and this further con- 
firms the conclusion that in that part of the Missouri river 
here under discussion the changes have not been sufficient to ac- 
count for the difference between the distance from Council Bluffs 
Iowa, to the Platte river, and that from Council Bluff to the 
same point as recorded by Lewis and Clark. 
Further corroboration is found in the fact that it is noted in 
the Original Journals® that on the 29th of July it was observed 
that on the S. S. (i.e., the starboard side, here the east side) of 
the Missouri “a creek comes in called Boyers R.,” and on the 
following page it is noted that at 1 % miles from that day’s 
starting point the party “passed Bpwyers R.”^ This is the 
Boyer river of today, and it now empties into the Missouri at a 
point about twelve miles above the city of Council Bluffs, but 
the Lewis and Clark record shows that the Boyer was then thirty- 
seven miles from the Platte, hence beyond the site of Council 
Bluffs, Iowa, and that Council Bluff was about twelve miles still 
farther north. It is thus certain that the Council Bluff" of Lewis 
and Clark is north of the Boyer, whereas Council Bluffs, Iowa, 
is several miles south of that stream. The subsequent changes 
in the course of the Missouri have brought the mouth of the 
Boyer somewhat nearer to Council Bluffs, Iowa, but it is still 
clearly between the two points under discussion. 
Another point of special importance in this connection is the 
record in the Clark JournaP that the landing place (at Council 
Bluff) was at “the lower part of a Bluff & High Prairie on L. 
S.” “L. S.” here means larboard side, as is clearly shown in 
many places in the Journals, “S. S.,” which is also frequently 
used, meaning starboard side. The larboard side of a boat going 
®See Original Journals, volume V, 376-380. 
^Volume I, p. 93. 
■^This stream is also called Boyers River in the Original Journal of Ser- 
geant Charles Floyd, Original Journals, Vol. VII, p. 22. 
^Original Journals, Vol. I, p. 94, 
