The following morning, the 28th of July, gave me another occasion to reflect on the rude manners of our crew. For some time past we had made a numerous and interesting collection of natural history, many articles of which we were obliged, for want of room, to leave on deck. The skins, skulls of animals, and the like, some of which it had cost us much trouble to procure, were generally thrown into the river during the night, though Mr. Mitchell had set a penalty of five dollars on such irregularities. In this manner I lost many highly interesting specimens; and on board our keel-boat, with the most favourable opportunities, it was hardly possible to make a collection of natural history, if I except the herbarium, which we kept in the cabin, under our eyes, so that we brought but a small part of what we had collected to Fort Mc Kenzie.
In order to find Muscleshell River, which could not be far off, I landed early, with Messrs. Mitchell and Cuthbertson, on the south bank, where there was a fine shady poplar-grove, with a high undergrowth of roses, dogwood, and gooseberries. Through this thorny disagreeable thicket we followed the tracks of the wild animals, which led us to some open places covered with high grass; and beyond the wood a verdant prairie, where we gathered many interesting plants. We, however, did not find Muscleshell River, which was further up, and a storm with heavy rain drove us back to the boat, where we arrived wet through and through. At eleven o'clock in the forenoon, however, we reached the mouth of the river which we had sought for.
Muscleshell River, the Coquille of the Canadians,[33] joins the Missouri on the south-west side, and at its mouth, which is seventy paces broad, both its banks are covered with poplars, partly high trees, partly bushes. About eight hundred paces upward there are, on its banks, high hills, covered with greyish-green short grass, and spots of pines. Its course is for a long time nearly parallel with that of the Missouri. We were told that the distance from Fort Mc Kenzie to its banks is only between thirty and forty miles, and that it is only five or six miles from its mouth that it turns towards the Missouri. Lewis and Clarke reckon 2270 miles from the junction of these two rivers to the mouth of the latter. Wandering Indians are found only occasionally on the banks of the Muscleshell, but they are said to be at all times about its sources. It is reckoned that its mouth is halfway between Fort Union and Fort Mc Kenzie: we could not hope to reach the latter in less than seventeen or eighteen days, though the navigation of the Missouri, from the mouth of the Muscleshell upwards, is more easy than before, because its course is straighter, its banks more rocky, and there are neither branches of trees nor drift-wood in its bed.