582 M I S S O U R I. 
fuming an hoftile attitude, deemed it proper to relinquifh 
Louifiana for a pecuniary confideration to the United 
States; (fee Louisiana, vol. xiii. p. 696.) and it became 
accordingly an important confideration with the Ameri¬ 
can government to obtain an accurate knowledge of the 
new territory, with a view to matters of commerce and 
to eventual colonization. Of the expeditions hitherto 
directed to this objeft, the moll important is that which 
was entrufted to the command of captains Lewis and 
Clarke, with inftrudtions, after exploring the Miffouri 
from its confluence with the Miffiflippi to its fource, to 
proceed acrofs the mountains to the firA navigable river 
on the weftern fide which they Humid be able to follow 
down to the ocean. This voyage began in May 1804, 
and was terminated by the return to the place of em¬ 
barkation in September 1806; the diftanoe travelled over 
being, in all, about 9000 miles. The expedition at firA 
confifted of forty-five perfons, including the two com¬ 
manders, all well calculated for the fervice in which they 
were engaged. They embarked in three boats, one of 
them fifty-five feet long, half decked; the other two 
open; and they failed from a point near the junction of 
the Miffiflippi and Miffouri, in the latitude of 38° 55' N. 
The account of the expedition is given in the form of a 
journal, very minute, circumffantial, and unadorned, with 
every mark of being entitled to perfedt confidence. 
The thing that firA prefents itfelf, is the peculiar cha¬ 
racter of the Miffouri. At the place where they em¬ 
barked, the breadth of the river is about 875 yards, or 
nearly half a mile : the current flows with great rapidity, 
and brings with it an incredible quantity of rolling fand, 
forming here and there fand-bars, extremely moveable, 
and dangerous to thole who navigate the river. The 
bottom is alfo full of logs, and the river carries with it 
great quantities of drift-wood. The banks, too, being- 
undermined by the river, are continually falling in; and 
the bed, of courfe, perpetually changing. A vaA num¬ 
ber of large rivers join the Miffouri from the fouth and 
weA. One of the greateA of thefe is the Platte, or Shal¬ 
low River, which, riling in the great chain of the Rocky 
Mountains, about longitude m°, runs nearly due eaA to 
longitude 97 0 , where it joins the Miffouri. The Platte 
is fix hundred yards wide at the junction ; but its depth 
appears not to exceed fix feet. Its fources are on the 
Spanifli frontier, and not far diAant from thofe of the 
Rio del Norte, which traverfes the kingdom of New 
Mexico, and runs into the Gulf of Florida. From its 
rapidity, and the quantity of fand it carries down, it is 
not navigable for boats, though the Indians pafs it in 
frnall canoes made of hides. 
The vaA quantity of land carried down by the Miflouri, 
and all the rivers that run into it, is a phenomenon of 
which we believe there is no example on this fide of the 
Atlantic. Such rivers are inflruments of the degradation 
of the land, far more adtive than any that occur in the 
regions not.iubjedt to great periodical inundations. They 
are not, however, fubjcdt to fuch inundations; and there¬ 
fore the quantity of fand they tranfport, with the conAant 
changes taking place in their beds, mufi be afcribed to 
the loofe texture of the grounds throughwhich they flow. 
The great finuofity of .the Miflouri, is a fact that mull be 
explained in the fame manner. One day, when they 
ftopped to take their meridian obfervation, they found 
themfelves fo near the fpot where they had obferved the 
day before, that they lent a man to Aep the difiance over 
the narrow neck of land which leparated the two Rations: 
he ftepped 974 yards, and the diflanee by the river was 
eighteen miles and three-quarters. At a place called the 
t-irand Detour, or Great Bend, the winding of the river 
was Aill more remarkable: the difiance acrofs the neck 
was 1000 yards, while the circuit by the river was no lefs 
than thirty miles. This very remarkable fpot is in the 
latitude of 43 degrees. We doubt if the Meander itfelf 
could produce-any finuofity fo great. 
So very moveable are the fand-bars thrown up by the 
Miflouri, that the party, having encamped on one of them 
for the night, were awaked in the morning by the fenti- 
nel on watch, who told them that the ground was fink¬ 
ing ; and accordingly, before they could ffrike their tents, 
and get into their boats, it had almolt entirely difappeared. 
The Miflouri continued to maintain this charadter at the 
place where they wintered, which was nearly in latitude 
47g N. and at the diflanee, as tlfey reckoned it, of about 
1600 miles from the place where they had embarked. 
The velocity of the Aream is mentioned, at one place, 
as having been meafured by the log, and. found a fathom 
and a quarter, or feet, per fecond: it is added, that in 
fome places they had found the velocity double of this. 
A velocity of 7^ feet per fecond is nearly five miles an- 
hour, which is very far beyond the velocity of the ff reams 
with which we are acquainted in this part of the world. 
In a river, not very deep, obftrudted by fhoals, and rolling 
a prodigious quantity of fand along its bottom, fuch a 
velocity as even the leaff of the two jufi mentioned 
argues a very great declivity; fo that there is little doubt 
that our travellers were afcending very fafi above the level 
of the fea ; and that, when they reached the point at which 
they wintered, they were in reality in a very elevated fitua- 
tion. It is much to be regretted, however, that they have 
not informed us more particularly of the velocity and the 
depth of the river. If they had been careful, now and 
then, from week to week forinffance, to inform us of the 
average velocity and depth of the river, together with its 
breadth, even though this lafi was not corredtly given, 
we fliould have been able to tell, with very confiderable 
exadtnefs, the general declivity on which the Miflouri 
runs; and, of courfe, the height above the fea that be¬ 
longs to any part of its courfe. For the fake of thofe 
who explore unknown countries by the navigation of ri¬ 
vers, we wifii it were generally attended to, that the ve¬ 
locity of a river, joined to its fedtion, or its breadth and 
depth, but efpecially the latter, affords the means of de¬ 
termining its declivity, and becomes a method of level-' 
ling, to which, in the abfence of the barometer, recourfe 
may often be had with great advantage. 
At a diflanee from the river, the ground feemed to rife, 
and to form hills, though of no great height. Now and 
then rocks appeared dole to the river; and Arata of fand- 
ltone, and, in fome places, beds of coal, were difeovered. 
The face of the country was covered with herbage, and 
the land is generally fpoken of as rich. A good deal of 
wood appeared; but they do not mention trees of any 
confiderable fize, nor any great forefls, which indeed mult 
be prevented from riling by the numbers of deer, elk, and 
buffalo, that paflure in thefe plains. Of the wild fruits 
that they met with, they hardly mention any but the 
grape ; and this they found often very good, and in great 
abundance. 
The climate of the tradf we are now confidering, is very 
various; and the extreme cold experienced during the 
winter, in a latitude no higher than 47 0 , cannot be ex¬ 
plained on any fuppofition but that of an extraordinary 
elevation. The thermometer, at the place of their en¬ 
campment, was frequently 20 0 below o, or 52 0 below the 
freezing point. It defeended even much lower than this ; 
and the froA fet in very early in the feafon. As an addi¬ 
tional proof that the ground here is very high, it may be 
obferved, that fome rivers which run northward to Lake 
Winnepeg, and from thence into Hudfon’s Bay, take their 
rife at no great diflanee from the northern bank of the 
Miffouri. One, in particular, the Moufe River, is noted 
in the map as having its fource within one mile of it; 
and, in general, the line which mufl be accounted the 
partition of the waters, comes very near to the Miffouri 
for a confiderable tradt toward the north-eafl. The feve¬ 
rity of the winter may be judged of from the following 
fadts. On the 8th of December, the thermometer flood 
12 0 below o ; the wind from the north-weft. The air was 
filled with icy particles, refembling a fog. The fnow fix 
or eight inches deep; feveral of the hunters had then- 
feet froft-bitten. On the nth, the weather was fo in- 
tenfely cold, that they called in all the hunting-parties; 
3 ’the 
