November 5, 1833
In the morning, bright sky, strong, cold wind. Again we saw singular clay mountains to our right, but less laterally striped than yesterday’s. Prairie hens (Tetrao phasianellus) appeared on treetops; small finches drank on the bank. Magpies and ravens [were seen]. To the left on the prairie [was] a large herd of elk. At eight thirty we tied up on the bank to the right. White men had built a small fort here from old wood. In front of the hills, a prairie. I walked through individual areas of forest and shrubbery; I came upon a deer but did not have a rifle. Morrin went out, tracked many elk, saw nothing. Little ground squirrels ran on the bank. After we had cooked and [eaten] breakfast, we sailed on at ten forty-five. Weather pleasant; warm sunshine but unpleasant wind. Around the next turn, we ran into [a] head wind, very warm and nice. A magpie sat on the helm for a long time; it called in its voice, “Twit! twit!” An island in front of us in the distance. Six antelope ran and played on the sandbar in front of the island and then hurried toward the right bank through the river. In the small bushes of the ravines, the white wooly seeds of the Clematis shone everywhere. The men rowed hard to catch up with the antelope, but we [were] too late; when we went ashore on the right bank, they were fleeing across the hills. At twelve forty-five we were at the end of the forest on the island. The wind was favorable on this turn of the river. The island now seemed to be connected to the left bank. The sun beautifully illuminated the strange peaks of the right bank. Their edges protruded very strongly. A few remarkable hills of clay [could be seen].
Often, on the banks below the forests on the river, we saw small flocks of finches (Fringilla linaria americana). A single duck appeared-[there were virtually] no waterfowl at all, because the inland waters were all open. Sixteen to twenty feet above the present water level, [we observed that] the bark of the trees in the forest was chipped and the trunks partly broken down by ice. What an expanse of water one must see here during floods!
Traces of the black coal layers could often be observed on the bluffs of the right bank. The hills were lower now, gently rounded, greenish gray or pale brownish gray, without [distinctive] shapes. [Where the hills] cut into the river, spherelike chunks of sandstone appeared.
Juniperus prostrata formed spots [on the hills]. Four Mergus with reddish brown heads swam beside us. Magpies flew on the bank. In the next forest to the right, on a high cottonwood, an eyrie; then many more could be seen. Nests of magpies [were] built as in Europe, and nests of ravens looked like large spheres of brushwood. We saw several ducks. To the left a wide flat prairie opened presently; on the right bank, low hill chains.
Three wolves [appeared] on this prairie. On the right bank around a turn to the right, in the bluffs, [there was] a heavy layer of sandstone; on that lay one of yellow clay with large, rolled-down, ellipsoidal rubble; many formations were spherelike. Now and then cedars (Juniperus virginiana) grew 20 feet high in the rough, low hill slopes. Juniperus prostrata covered the low slopes in spots. The area in general [was] flat. A beautiful bald eagle [was spied] in the forest on the left bank, soon a second one. Nearby, a beaver lodge and a beaver track. The logs lying in the water were gnawed off by the beaver, cut halfway through.
On trees in the forest [we saw] Picus pubescens. Four prairie hens on the bank in the forest. We sailed long past sunset. In a willow and cottonwood thicket on the left bank, three elk. The sun reddened the elevations in a marvelous, incomparable way, fiery red with its last rays. The area turned very flat in the evening. We were not far from the mouth of the Little Missouri. At five thirty we put ashore on the right bank for the night.
The place was interesting, sandy with a forest of cottonwood that had been totally destroyed by beavers. They had felled a number of large trunks, forming a clearing; the shavings lay on the ground, [and] most trees [were] gnawed halfway through. Nearby there was a lodge in the river, and we used the beaver path. Besides beaver, a large number of fresh elk, deer, and wolf tracks were evident, also large bear prints. The night was dark but starlit; our fire shone brightly. In the thicket wolves were howling in a chorus. When I stood watch at ten o’clock, the pack came very close to the boat; they smelled the meat.