JOtfRNALi 
231 
Mahas. Sergeant Floyd, one of the party of Lewis and Clark, 
was buried here: the place is marked by a cross. 
The appearance of the river is much changed—it continues 
a handsome width, with a diminished current. The banks low, 
and the trees much smaller in size; we now rarely see a large 
tree. The bluffs and upland on the N. E. side, are not high, 
and without any appearance of trees and shrubs. 
Mondaij 20th. Passed at daylight, the Great Sioux rive£, 
which takes its rise in the plains, between the Missouri, and the 
waters of lake Winipec; it is five or six hundred miles in, 
length. I ascended the bluffs, high clay banks of sixty, or an 
hundred feet. The current is nere very strong. Hailed a tra¬ 
der, descending in a large canoe, made of skins of the buffaloe, 
upwards of twenty feet in length, who wintered at the river 
a v Jaque. He met Hunt eight leagues below that river, proceed¬ 
ing with a fair wind, and is by this time, at the Qui Courre.— 
These skin canoes are stretched over the red willow, and re¬ 
quire to be frequently exposed to the sun, and dried, as they 
would otherwise become too heavy, from the quantity of water 
absorbed. We are now nearly half way to the place of our des¬ 
tination. 
Perceive a sudden rise of the water. Sand bars are nearly 
all covered, and banks, in places, overflown. 
Tuesday 2 Ur. This morning fine, though somewhat cool. 
Wind increasing from the N. E. Current rapid, but for the 
eddies in the bends, it would be almost impossible to ascend.-— 
There are but few embarras, or collections of trees, Sec. The 
sand bars are fringed with a thick growth of willows, immedi¬ 
ately behind which, there are young cotton wood trees, forming 
a handsome natural avenue, twenty or thirty feet wide. The 
banks are very low, and must be inundated every season. 
Passed in the evening, a rapid, of frightful appearance, the 
water foaming and rolling in waves, as if agitated by violent 
wind in the middle of the river, while on either side it was calm. 
We were compelled to pass along the sand bar. and through the 
willows. It was with difficulty that we could obtain dry land 
this evening, the water, in most places, flows into the woods.— 
Ip the night, the wate£ had riseq so much, that the men Were 
