2G4 
VOYAGE DOWN THE MISSOURI. 
and towed up this rapid stream by eighteen French voyagers—a most laborious work. The}'- had 
been thirty-two days in coming from the mouth of the Yellowstone. At this rate of travel they 
will not reach Fort Benton before winter. These men are a hardy race, able to endure an 
immense amount of fatigue and exposure, yet always cheerful, and, with a hunter in attendance 
to supply them with buffalo meat, content to toil on uncomplainingly. I believe it will not be long 
before this uncouth and laborious mode of navigating this magnificent river over to the Falls 
will be superseded by the all-conquering force of steam. 
September 20.—A rainy night and morning. We made a fine sail down the river, and saw a 
great deal of game—buffalo, bear, elk, and black-tailed deer. We killed a fine specimen of the 
latter, and found its meat excellent. I think that no portion of the w*orld can boast of a greater 
profusion of game. We see constantly large numbers of the above-mentioned species swimming 
the river in advance of the boat, and evidently very little concerned at our approach. A large 
grizzly bear swam across near the boat. A broadside of twenty Mississippi rifles was fired at 
him, but he passed on apparently unhurt. Fie looked a little astonished at the sound of the rifle, 
but shook his shaggy main and galloped to the woods. 
October 2,- i We arrived at Fort Union, near the mouth of the Yellowstone, about 9 o’clock this 
evening, without having met with any trouble Horn low water or Indians, having travelled from 
Fort Benton, seven hundred and fifty miles by the river, in eleven days. For the last few days 
we have seen innumerable herds of buffalo-cows, in many places extending in every direction as 
far as the eye could reach. They are very fat at this season, and I would consider their flesh 
preferable to beef. 
We were visited by a party of Assiniboins. They are very rich this year, on account of the 
abundance of buffalo, and offered to bring us a large supply of dried meat if we could wait till 
they could send for it. As progress is of more importance than anything else, we were obliged to 
decline their hospitality. 
October 5.—After spending one day at Fort Union in making preparations, we proceeded on our 
voyage down the river. Our progress is but slow, the innumerable snags and sand-bars in the 
channel making the navigation almost impossible in the night; and by day, the wind frequently 
impedes our advance by rendering the Blackfoot completely unmanageable. 
The buffalo-cows have all gone to the north. We occasionally see a few bulls, but they are 
lean at this season of the year, and their flesh not at all palatable. The male and female do not 
range together at this season. 
I think Fort Union is the finest place on the Missouri for a military post—in the heart of the 
Indian country, surrounded with a fertile soil and the finest hunting range, and of easy access by 
the Missouri for eight months in the year. Few positions in the Indian territory can be occupied 
so advantageously and with less expense to the government. 
October 8.—For the last three days we have continued our slow progress down the river, con¬ 
tending with fogs, head winds and sand-bars, through a fine region, full of game, and occa¬ 
sionally speaking a hunting party of Gros Ventres out after buffalo. But to-day has been a day 
of accidents. We landed on a sand-bar just after starting, and had scarcely got under way 
again when the wind commenced blowing a perfect gale, and compelled us to lie by until sun¬ 
set, w hen the wind lulled and we started down the river. We had gone but a short distance 
when the boat ran upon three snags lying close together; two of them sticking about six feet out 
of the water, and eight feet apart, and the other midway between them, about eighteen inches in 
diameter, its blunt end just above the surface of the water, and all pointing up-stream. One 
of the snags passed directly over our bows, breaking three of our oars; and assisting, with our 
whole weight, to press down upon the middle snag, which was threatening every moment to 
break through the bottom of our weak craft, we worked until 10 p. m., endeavoring to get off, 
without success; and here we are in the middle of the Missouri, with fifteen feet of swift-running 
water for more than one hundred yards on each side of us, the bow of our boat resting on a 
