May 17, 1834
Nice, hot day. At eight thirty, 62°F [16.7°C]. Wind southwest hora 4. Both banks were uninterruptedly covered with tall forests. We navigated between the wooded banks against the wind. At noon, 75°F [23.9°C]. Because the wind became a little brisk, we put in on the right bank and went deep into the forests to hunt. The countless caterpillars had already completely defoliated the young, polelike cottonwoods on the bank. They lay en masse on the trunks; the ground was literally covered with their excrement. If we walked into the bushes, [even] for just a moment, we were covered with caterpillars.
We shot the gray squirrel, Fringilla cardinalis, Icteria viridis, the beautiful yellow-bellied songbird with a titmouse-like yellow and black head (S. [——]), the red-eyed flycatcher (Muscicapa [——]), [and] the small orange-plated[?] thrush (T. [——]). These birds were in the glorious forest that extended in front of the hills and [consisted] of Platanus, various kinds of oaks, walnut trees, ashes, elms, maples, Celtis, Cercis, [and] cottonwoods, which [cast] dark shadows with their spreading crowns and colossal trunks. All kinds of local creepers climbed up and covered the trunks with their leaves, offering various birds nesting opportunities. The ground was densely covered with fresh green herbs. [There were] a great many Podophyllum, Cypripedium with bright yellow flowers, Phlox with bright purple flowers, and many other nice plants—old, rotted wood [around] them [all]. We departed at four o’clock. The wind was still strong [but] very warm.
About six o’clock we saw an Indian on horseback on the left bank. [His] upper body [was] bare; [he] called to us that he was a Sauk. These people often ride to hunt and shoot very well from horseback.
Soon after [that] we reached Cow Island; from there, it was still 9 miles to Cantonment Leavenworth. On the island we saw grazing cattle that belonged to the military post. When the sun was almost setting, we reached a house on the right bank where a white man talked in French with our people.
A few Indians [were] on horseback on the riverbank, [and] farther down there [were] more, because a short distance into the forest there is a village of Kickapoos who were relocated here from the east. [Close by,] la rivière du village de douze [the river of the village of twelve], as the Canadians call it, flows into the [Missouri]. We put in on the right bank for the night. Several of our people, Gard ner among them, immediately went ahead to Leavenworth. On top of the bank where we [stopped, there was] a nice, flat, even area overgrown with isolated swaths of high forest. Farther inland [there was] a beautiful, airy oak forest with slender-trunked [trees]. Partridges called here, [and] the Icteria’s multivoiced song resounded; several small birds and a few hawks inhabited the trees.