JOURNAL. 
263 
affording but a scanty vegetation of sand cherries, gooseberries, 
and dwarf plum trees. The next day we passed White river, 
where the black bluffs begin—-a barren and miserable country 
nearly an hundred miles ; there are scarcely any bottoms, and 
the bluffs in most places without even grass. In some places 
the hills rise to the height of mountainsit frequently afford¬ 
ed me amusement to see the herds of buffaloe ascending these 
hills by a winding path. In the evening we were compelled to 
land in a little recess of the bluffs, there being appearances of ah 
approaching storm : we were not disappointed. The continued 
and vivid flashes of lightening, and peals of thunder, shaking 
the solid earth, were succeeded by a tremendous storm. The 
winds blew with such violence, as to threaten our boats; fbr ah 
hour, we were obliged to protect the sides with wet blarikets, 
to prevent them from filling, while it rained on Us incessantly 
the whole night. The next day we passed the Poncas village. 
The Indians were absent in the plains. The islands are gene¬ 
rally fine thus far, and excepting the tract between the White 
river, and the Qui Courre, there are many delightful spots, 
though the bottoms are mostly prairie, and the upland with lit¬ 
tle or no wood. 
In the evening, near a point above isle a Bon Homme, our 
attention was awakened by a tremendous noise. On landing, 
we discovered the woods literally swarming with buffaloe, a 
herd of males had come amongst a number of females. The 
noise which they made is truly undescrinable. On the hills in 
every direction, they appeared by thousands. Late in the even¬ 
ing we saw an immense herd running along the sides of the 
hills in full speed; their appearance had something in it, which, 
without incurring ridicule, I might call sublime-—their foot¬ 
steps resembled the roaring of distant thunder. 
The next day we passed the Maha village, and had a most 
extraordinary run of forty-five leagues, from sun to sun. From 
the Qui Courre, to the Mahas, the bottoms are wider and bet¬ 
ter wooded than above, but the upland much the same. We 
found them almost every where overflowed; we were obliged 
to encamp on some driftwood—the musketoes tormenting us 
the whole night. 
