Early, bright, beautiful weather; a few light clouds in the sky. There was nothing noteworthy on the river. On the right bank, a thick trunk, gnawed on and felled by beavers. We saw one prairie hen, then two coveys near each other of thirty to forty each. They alighted on a bush behind a willow thicket in the forest and completely covered it.

At eight thirty a bull elk bugled in the forest to the right, just like the deer of Europe, where individual [stags] can be heard bugling late [in the season]. We now lay to on a sandbar in front of the forest and lit a fire to prepare our breakfast. Tracks of elk, deer, bears, wolves, and the like crossed in all directions, but most of them were not recent. Dreidoppel and Morrin went hunting. The thicket on the bank above the sandbar was [a] dense forest of cottonwood mixed with an underbrush of five- to six-foot[-high] roses, ash, buffalo berries, Cornus, box elder, and narrow-leafed willow coppices with blackberry bushes, Clematis, and a few [other] plants, especially Symphoria. In the willows on the beach, on the steep bank of the forest, [and] in many areas of these woods, [there was] a low plant that grew 5 to 6 feet high [with] branches having calix persistens, containing many seeds, which I collected. Its capsules are almost one and a half or two inches long, oblong, [and] cylindrical, and [the] outer rims are in four parts. In the middle of the capsule [is] a columella. The seeds are small and yellowish brown. The buffalo berries were now frozen and in their best condition despite that, contracting almost like sloes. Their color was scarlet and no longer minium red.

At ten thirty Morrin returned and had neither shot nor seen anything in this unfavorable locale because the thicket was too densely entangled. The sun had strength now, and the ground had thawed on the surface. We sailed on right away. The Cornus (red willow) on the edge of the forest forms a dark purple-red rim on the banks of the Missouri. The river made a turn to the left around a large wooded headland with a sandbank in front. Here we saw two deer, or chevreuils (Cervus virginianus). The right bank had no forest at the bend, and there on the prairie, a naked, plain hill chain was visible. Our bears and the little fox got buffalo berries; magpies flew out of the willow thickets.

In places where the high sandy bank was collapsing, large willow bushes 15 to 20 feet in height were seen. Their tips were entangled with still other thickets and linked to each other. Their roots, however, extended freely downward, because the loose sand had fallen away. Our people complained about the bad salt pork, and we looked everywhere to shoot something [to eat]. The sun burned very hot about noon. The steep sandbanks alternated with shallow clay deposits, striped or layered regularly.

About a half hour farther on, we found in the forest on the right bank a tangle of branches (made by a beaver) and a path to the meadows nearby. The titmouse (Parus atricapillus) [was] everywhere in the willows. While approaching a series of prairie hills on the left bank, we heard three shots at eleven thirty, without doubt made by Assiniboines. We distributed powder. On the hill chain where the river turned to the right, there were ravines with stretches of low-level bushes extending upward in them. The hills here have a wild, rugged, raw look. Large lumps of clay with dried grass had crashed down. Magpies flew [around] this rough debris. Opposite the hills ([which were] not more than 80 to 100 feet [above] the surface of the water) lay a flat sandy area with driftwood; behind it, the willow and forest flats. A narrow, horizontal, blackish layer of coal appears in some places here. On the lower parts of the steep clay bank to the left, whitish decay [could be seen] every where near the water. At one o’clock the men believed they saw a few Indians on the wide sandbars to the left, but [a view through] the telescope rendered them lifeless and revealed them as driftwood. Two prairie hens sat on the bank to the left in the forest. In such locations, they are not shy. At one o’clock, toward the next turn of the river, a wind rose up, whirling sand from the sandbars into the air.

On the headland to the right, below the bank, [we saw] a beaver’s lodge. To the left, a wide prairie with a ten-foot-high, steep bank, lined whitish below. In front of us in the distance at the next bend, a hill chain rose, steep [and] tabular. Halfway there, we saw a flock of eight snow-white swans and [another] of ducks. The former ascended with a loud noise of their wings, moved on with their necks stretched out, and made short calls similar to those of wild geese, only shorter. They circled back downriver.

At two o’clock we reached a hill chain on the right bank. It consisted of brownish gray clay and sand, probably also sandstone, because where [such] hills are whole, there is a rubble of yellow-reddish sandstones lying on the slopes. Where the river cut off or through [the hills], the incline was steep and [striated] with individual narrow, yellow layers and two to five parallel, narrow black (velvety black) strata. The hills are similar to the ones in the Mauvaises-Terres [Badlands] in shape and formation. A flat floor of forest and willows is located in front of the hills here, retreating a bit in a circle, 1,000 paces farther, reaching up to the river. We lay to on this fifteen-foot-high, steep forest bank. Morrin, Bodmer, Dreidoppel, and Beauchamp went to [search] the bank for game. I watched over the boat and made notes about the views for myself. Two eagles sat on high treetops; several magpies were in the forest.

We had navigated here on the left bank past the Rivière bourbeuse (White Earth River of Lewis and Clark). Ice floes floated by near us and crashed noisily on snags at the bank. This ice floats out of the small tributaries, in this case the Rivière bourbeuse. Today our small bear made noise by constantly scratching his crate. He lay mostly on his back and did not shy away from the nails we had driven in as obstacles. Resting near the bank, we did not hear anything but the unpleasant roar of the waves breaking [on] the snags and the sandbanks collapsing near and far, often sounding like muffled [gun]shots.

Finally, we happily heard two shots by the hunters, which raised new hopes in our people. Our animals were also very hungry; they did not want to eat salt pork. Then there was another shot. Mr. Bodmer had fired at a striped squirrel sitting on a trunk. Morrin had shot twice at some game. They all came back [without] anything [although they] had met three to four animals. There were crows and magpies in large numbers where we were staying.

A bat flew above the river. At four o’clock we continued sailing and soon reached the hill chain on the left bank. At the center of its apex [there was] a brickred layer; many small, cone-shaped hills [were] located in front [of the chain]. This red clay [can] obviously be turned into bricks when fired. A flock of wild geese flew upriver. We lay to in front of the hill chain on a sandspit with wood deposits to cook for the evening. It was already late, and the river was very shallow beyond the bend. Our people had not eaten anything but bacon and were weak. We stayed here (on the next bend of the river to the right below the Rivière bourbeuse) for the night. We dispersed into the forest. Very near the campground the sand was covered with doe and wolf tracks. Beyond the sandspit there was a young, uniformly tall thicket of cottonwood (Populus angulata). On the other side, low sandhills were covered with yellow grass. Then [came an] old cottonwood forest, its ground overgrown with a dark red underbrush of Cornus, Rosa, and buffalo berry through which Clematis and Vitis labrusca crept. On the vines some small, dark blue grapes remained, which our fox did not want to eat. A plant ([——]) that I collected this morning was [also] growing here, 4 feet high, branching out with five to six shoots.

The only living animals I saw here were crows, common ravens, magpies, and a flock of small linnets (Fringilla linaria americana)—very similar to the European species, with a light line above the eye and a blood-red spot on the forehead. They were so tame that, when I chased them, they almost sat on my gun. Unfortunately, I could not shoot one of them. Morrin and Dreidoppel also returned empty-handed. Our [crew] slept on land at the fire; [the three of us stayed] in the boat; nobody stood watch. The night was bright [and] clear, and a full moon was shining; there was hoarfrost; it froze.