Night very windy; wind favorable. At daybreak it became strong and contrary. The region somewhat like yesterday: sometimes high gray bluffs, sometimes prairie along the bank. At seven o’clock we put in at the right bank for breakfast. We lay at a prairie overgrown with Artemisia and several other plants. At 7:30, 64°F [17.8°C]. The boat took in much water; we [had] bailed all night. At 8:15, a small creek on the right; before us lay Spaniards Island. We now had a good wind and sailed swiftly. A large sandbar remained to our left; all around were bare, naked hills. At 8:45, a tall blue dome of the Rocky Mountains in the south. Soon we navigated around a promontory to the left, because the river turned in this direction. They continued pushing with poles; the sail helped.

On the left bank, we reached a nice strip of shady old cottonwoods with a border of willows along shore, where Mr. Mitchell, Culbertson, Dreidoppel, Doucette, Deschamps, and Papin got out to go hunting. They soon shot a wild goose on the bank. Directly above this timber, the river divides around Spaniards Island, which likewise is overgrown with tall timber. We passed to the right of the island. It has only medium-high woods of slight extent and a large sandy expanse; [it] is separated by a narrow channel from a small island [that] immediately follows. With the moderately strong wind, [the day] was now very warm. The river had a beautiful light green color, and near the surface was its water was almost completely bright and clear. This is proof that Lewis and Clark are in error when they say the Marias River gives the Missouri its dirty color. On the left bank there was prairie before the hills; along the right one, bare, grayish yellow sand and clay hills of slight elevation. Our hunters moved around on the prairie and went over the hills to the left. We had various glimpses of several tall domes of the Rocky Mountains. In several places off the left bank, the current was very strong, mostly caused by fallen trunks lying in the water. To the right one saw a troop of fifteen or sixteen elk fleeing in the sparse timber toward the prairie.

At 10:45 we put in at the left bank. Lanius septentrionalis lived in an isolated tree beside us. Dreidoppel came in; [he] had shot one of these birds. He brought Grindelia squarrosa, with its yellow blossoms, which is used here as a remedy for venereal diseases. It grows plentifully here and higher up. Mr. Mitchell also came in; from the hills he had seen snow on the Rocky Mountains.

After twenty minutes we continued our journey. In several places the left bank was a mixture of sand and clay, with fist-size pebbles [as well as] smaller ones, and all kinds of rocky debris from the river. On the right bank, tall, shady cottonwoods. The river turns right; to the left the hills here are tall bluffs.

They take the oars, and we navigate to the right bank. At twelve o’clock, 75°F [23.9°C]. Deschamps, who had gone out, had seen six Indians on horseback riding in the direction of Fort McKenzie. He brought branches of Prunus padus virginiana, whose fruits are eaten [here] and are called cerises (cherries). They were not yet ripe and are said to be always difficult to digest. On the other hand, the socalled poires (Mespilus), many of which grow along the Marias and all through the area, are tasty [and] are said to be easily digestible.

On the right bank, we followed steep, yellow-reddish bluffs, the bottom part of which consisted of ash-blue clay; they receded, and prairie covered both banks of the Missouri. Farther on, the region alternated with strips of timber along [the] shore. Those who climbed the hills saw the Marias River, not far from us, which the French call Marayon. A gunshot to the right caused us to assume that Indians were nearby, but we did not see any sign of them yet. All the Indians at the fort, informed of our imminent arrival, have already been, or are now, in the process of gathering there. We expect to find a large crowd of them.

We passed several small, wholly insignificant creeks, which were all dry. None of them had names. Along the right bank the bluffs, which were grayish yellow on top and ash-blue in the lower regions, have again appeared; they seem to consistwholly consist wholly of clay. To the left was an island; [the] channel dividing it from the mainland was shallow. It is not far from the mouth of the Marias. For the first time in several days, the mosquitoes had again appeared in large numbers; on shore they were even more numerous and annoying. In the isolated tall trees on the left bank flew Picus erythrocephalus, the white wings of which one sees from a great distance.

The region opened up more, and less than a half hour before the mouth of the Marias [there] was a flat island overgrown with willow and cottonwood. In the forest on the left bank, we saw many birds, mostly big Muscicapa, for the diversity of species here is not very great. Blackbirds (Quiscalus versicolor) are everywhere in the forests, swarming about with the numerous orange-yellow troupials [and] their grown young ones. On the prairie one found great numbers of big yellow-breasted larks, the young of which almost entirely lack the yellow breast. At four o’clock in the afternoon, the nighthawks (Caprimulgus americanus) flew about everywhere in the intense heat and pursued mosquitoes and other flying insects. The whippoorwill (Caprimulgus vociferus Wils.) does not go especially far up the Missouri; it does not occur in these regions, and I assume there is only one species of this genus here. The promontory, which still separates us from the Marias River, is overgrown with nice tall cottonwoods and short brush; opposite it there is likewise a long strip of tall forest trees before the prairie hills, which are completely bare here and colored light grayish brown: clay and sand. The river turned to the right, [and] one saw a long chain of hills ahead, table-shaped on top, beyond which Fort McKenzie is located. One could go there from the Missouri by land, over these hills, in half an hour.

The Marias empties on this side of the range of hills, and beyond its outlet, one saw old black poles on the bank where old Fort Piegan stood. Last summer (1832) it was abandoned, and the Indians burned it down and demolished it. Here the river was wide and formed an imposing shiny surface; beautiful tall forest trees line its banks in most places. The old fort stood close to the Missouri and was situated low. Kipp built it in 1831. Because they are attempting to expand the fur trade more and more into the hostile domain of the Blackfoot, posts of that kind do not last long. Fort McKenzie is already said to be of no further importance, [and] this summer Mr. Mitchell wants to establish a new one farther upstream. This does not apply to the forts located farther downstream; they will always be useful for communications and business with the interior.

As we pushed forward somewhat, we saw two riders on the hills, undoubtedly Indians, who, as soon as they caught sight of us, immediately sped off at full gallop with loose reins; they will probably very quickly bring word of the keelboat’s arrival to the fort. About 5:30 we found ourselves before the mouth of the Marias River, or Marayon, on whose below whose outlet there is a very small island. This river, which has cottonwood and willow thickets at its mouth, empties into the Missouri almost from the north.

The old fort was located about 700 paces above the mouth; some of its black, burnt palisades were still standing there. Before the fort were several small islands, partly with [and] partly without forest, and then only fresh sandbars. On the left bank we navigated with considerable exertion through a narrow channel, which had been fathomed by swimming. At one place it was not more than 40 paces wide; the current [was] rapid. Its force decreased as soon as we were beyond the narrow passage; the river soon turned left. On the sandy shores of the islands that form these channels was a large species of Tringa, Totanus, or Charadrius, which we shot at without success. The prairie of the left riverbank was overgrown with very thick Artemisia bushes. We continued navigating until about dusk, when we put in beneath high hills along the left bank.

This evening Mr. Mitchell noted with amazement that neither Indians nor whites had come from the fort to welcome us. Whenever he had come here previously, he had found Indians far downstream who welcomed him. One must also take into account the grave situation of the fort among dangerous, treacherous, and warlike Indian tribes, who usually kill whites whenever they can annihilate them alone or in small groups and who up to now have maintained peace at the fort solely for their own benefit. In the Rocky Mountains they have always shot to death all trappers and hunters whenever they came upon them. It was noted as well that the Gros Ventre [had] commented that the whites at the fort had had disagreements with the Indians; Deschamps thought he had heard some cannon shots today. All these observations put our situation, at a considerable distance from the last white outpost, in a not very pleasant light. Strong watches were set up, and the officers were divided up.

Because not the slightest word was brought to us from the fort, either through Indians or whites, Mr. Mitchell himself decided, since he was familiar with the region, to go across the hills on the left bank of the Missouri to the fort and reconnoiter the situation. He took good marksmen and resolute men with him: Deschamps, Papin, Doucette, and Benoit, all well armed. I had lent Mr. Mitchell my double-barreled gun and a pair of European hunting shoes, so that he would be protected against cactus thorns during this nighttime excursion. They rowed to the other riverbank, where the skiff would stay until they returned. We all stayed awake, for Mr. Mitchell had told us that we should navigate downstream if he had not returned by midnight. Meanwhile we stayed up until eleven o’clock.

The night was very beautiful [and] rather dark (since the moon did not shine) but very quiet and warm. We clearly heard the drums of the Indians [coming from] the direction of the fort. On the other side, the wolves howled in concert, which was so unusual that it could seldom have been heard other than here or in Russia and Poland. At 10:30 Mr. Mitchell returned with several of the men. Two of his group, Doucette and Benoit, had lost their way and were setting out once again to look for the fort. The whole group had reached the mouth of the Marias. Their feet were severely injured by the cactus growing all over the prairie. Toward morning a thunderstorm broke with heavy rain; the mosquitoes greatly tormented us. We had received no word at all about the situation at the fort.