NAVIGABILITY OF THE MISSOURI. 
235 
of older formation than was the case lower down the river. Both banks, whether low ground or 
hills, were well wooded; but on the right bank, those prairies which extend to the foot of the 
mountains were not far of!', while on the left the belt of thick woods was of about the same width, 
being succeeded by an alternation of prairies and woods. 
On one occasion we entered, just after we had turned from southwest to west, a long and 
straight portion of the river. From the lower end of this we could see Independence prairie at 
some miles off, and which appeared to cross the river from west to east. We halted near this 
at 9 p. m., and remained until the next morning. 
The distance from Weston to St. Joseph is, by land, twenty-eight miles, by water sixty miles. 
The river is very tortuous between the two points, flowing in its course towards every point of 
the compass. 
Several miles before we reached St. Joseph, the beautiful prairie on which it is situated 
appeared in view. It was of vast extent, and covered with a brilliant verdure. Behind it, to the 
east, were thinly-wooded hills, which appeared to range in a southeast and northwest direction. 
St. Joseph, a flourishing town of about five thousand inhabitants, was formerly an important, and 
is now, as I was informed, a minor rendezvous for California and Oregon emigrants, there being 
a good road from it to Fort Laramie and the South Pass. 
As at most of the places on this part of the Missouri where observations could be made or 
information obtained, the growth where we halted, opposite St. Joseph, consisted of cotton-wood, 
elm, ash, box alder, maple, bass-wood, mulberry, dog-wood, and oak. 
By rough measurement, I found that the width of the river just above St. Joseph was four 
hundred and sixty yards, and the velocity of the current three miles per hour; but this appeared 
much less than that near the left bank, where was the main channel. 
On the 30th and 31st we passed the rivers Nodawa, Little Tarkio, Big Tarkio, Big Nemahah, 
Nishnabotana, and Little Nemahah, which are respectively seventy, eighty, fifty, and forty yards 
wide at their mouths. 
Some of the islands, and in some places the channel, of this part of the river, do not appear to 
be subject to those sudden changes which have been described. The Great Nodawa island, with 
the channel on its eastern side, and some others, are now about as they were when described by 
Lewis and Clark. The growth of cotton-wood and willow, which commences as soon as the 
island is formed, protects it to a great extent from the action of the current. 
On the 30th and 31st the river continued in most respects of the same character as heretofore. 
The soil was observed to be very sandy and poor in some places on the 30th. The quicksand 
banks, which are occasionally found along this portion of the river, are very destructive to cattle, 
they being sometimes inextricably mired in them, as they come to the river to water. On the 
31st we passed Iowa Landing, where is a ferry, and whence is a road connecting with the emigrant 
road to Oregon and California. 
The river at this place varies in width from four hundred yards to half a mile. 
On the 1st of June we passed Old Fort Kearney, which is situated on the right bank at the 
mouth of Table creek ; it was formerly occupied as a military post. Bolly’s Point, on the oppo¬ 
site side of the river, is connected by a ferry with Old Fort Kearney, and with the road which 
leads thence to the west. 
This road leads to Fort Kearney on the Nebraska, and thence to the South Pass. It is, I be¬ 
lieve, from fifty to seventy miles shorter than the road wliich leads to those points from Fort 
Leavenworth. 
We found the river very rapid at Bolly’s Point. It was observed to be more tortuous than for 
several previous days. 
At Linden Landing, which we passed before coming to Old Fort Kearney, the Nishnabotana 
river approaches to within one hundred yards of the Missouri, and is there one hundred and 
