IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
255 
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 Journal* 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 north is the 
west side, hence the landing and camp at Council Bluff must have been on the 
west, or Nebraska, side of the Missouri river, whereas Council Bluffs, Iowa, is 
on the east side. 
The distance of Council Bluff from the Platte, its distance and direction from 
the mouth of the Boyer, and its location on the west bank of the Missouri river 
seem to be sufficient to prove that the Council Bluff of Lewis and Clark was in 
Nebraska. 
It is also evident that the Council Bluff of Lewis and Clark is the same as 
that of Say and Nicollet. Thirteen years after Lewis and Clark’s return voyage, 
on which Council Bluff was again visited**, the Long Expedition established 
a winter camp “near the quarters of the troops at Council Bluffs (Camp 
Missouri.”) *** 
A military expedition, under the command of Col. Henry Atkinson, had 
preceded the scientific expedition under Maj. Long, and established Camp Mis- 
souri at Council Bluff in September, 1819. . On the. 19th of September of the 
same year the Long party, which had ascended the Missouri river in the 
steamer “Western Engineer,” established a winter cantonment “on the west 
bank of the Missouri, about half a mile above Fort Lisa, five miles below 
Council Bluff, and three miles above the mouth of Boyer’s river.”**** 
This camp was named “Engineer Cantonment,” and Say refers to it frequently 
in his papers under that name, or simply as “Cantonment.” It is in Nebraska. 
It is further stated (p. 222) that “cliffs of sparry limestone rise in the 
rear of the site we had selected, to an elevation of near three hundred feet. 
At times of low water strata of horizontal sandstone are disclosed in the bed 
of the Missouri. These pass under and support the limestone.” 
And still further it is stated (p. 229) that “the Council Bluff, so called by 
Lewis and Clarke, from a council with the Otoes and Missouries held there on 
the 3d of August, 1804, is a remarkable bank rising abruptly from the brink 
of the river, to an elevation of about one hundred and fifty feet.” 
These descriptions of topography and geologic formations are of especial 
interest because they do not at all apply to any part of the vicinity of Council 
Bluffs, Iowa, as any one familiar with the region under discussion will at 
once perceive. 
* Original Journals, Vol. I, p. 94. 
**Original Journals, volume V, p. 379. • 
*** Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains performed 
in the years 1819, 1820— under the command of Major S. H. Long. Compiled from the 
notes of Major Long, Mr. T. Say, and other gentlemen of the party by Edwin James, 
botanist and geologist to the expedition. Published 1823. The original London edition, 
published in three volumes, was consulted by the writer, but the references herein 
given are to the Thwaites edition in four volumes published in 1905, as this iS more 
accessible. The words quoted above appear in vol. I, p. 12. ; ■ 
****This very full designation of the locality appears on p. 22lV>vbl; I, of the Thwaites’ 
edition of Long, and on p. 137 of the London edition. 
