Having received on board the detachment that had arrived from the Konza village, except Messrs. { 132} Say and Jessup, who, on account of ill health, remained at Isle au Vache, we left the mouth of Wolf river on the 2nd of September. A party of hunters, furnished with a horse for the transportation of game, were despatched at the same time with instructions to hunt on the south side of the river, and to join us again in the evening. We had little difficulty in procuring a constant supply of venison. Deer are very numerous on this part of the Missouri, and we had several opportunities to kill them from on board, as they were swimming across the river.
Twenty-one miles above the mouth of Wolf river, and on the same side, is the entrance of the Grand Nemahaw, a considerable river which rises in the plains between the Platte and the Republican Fork of the Konzas river, and running eastwardly about one hundred and fifty miles, discharges into the Missouri a little north of latitude forty degrees. In the straightness of its course, the rapidity and turbulence of its stream, it has a general resemblance to the other western tributaries of the Missouri. A few miles above the Nemahaw, and on the opposite side, is the mouth of the Tarkio, a smaller stream.[164]
On the 4th of September we were joined by the hunters, who brought two deer, and informed us they had killed several others. Lieutenant Field's boat was allowed to remain at the encampment of the preceding night, after the departure of the steam-boat, for the purpose of taking on board a large quantity of honey. Swarms of bees were found here in great numbers, and the honey they afforded made a valuable addition to our provisions, consisting now in a great measure of hunters' fare.
Finding one of the valves of the steam-engine much worn and leaky, we were now under the necessity of stopping for a day to have a new one, which we had brought, adapted to its place. Several of the men amused themselves by hunting and fishing. { 133} We had now a plentiful supply of game, and many large catfish were taken, some of them weighing more than fifty pounds.
We passed in succession the mouths of the Nishnebottona and the Little Nemahaw,[165] and arrived on the 7th at the Grand Pass. Here the Nishnebottona, a beautiful river about sixty yards wide, approaches within one hundred and fifty yards of the Missouri, being separated from it by a sandy prairie, rising scarcely twenty feet above the surface of the water. After pursuing for a short distance a parallel course, the two rivers diverge, and the Nishnebottona meanders along the side of the Missouri valley, about sixty miles to its confluence with the latter river.[166] From this point is a pleasing view of the hills called the Baldpated Prairie, stretching along the north-eastern side of the Nishnebottona, and diminished to the size of anthills in the distant perspective.[167] Here the navigation is much obstructed by sand-bars, and the ordinary current of the Missouri, according to the statement of Lewis and Clarke, corroborated by our observation, is something more than one fathom per second.[168] In many places the Missouri hurries across concealed sand bars and other obstructions, with the velocity of seven, eight, or even twelve feet in a second.[169] Between these obstructions, the channel becomes deeper, and the current more moderate; consequently the aggregate velocity at times of low water may be reckoned something less than six feet to the second. As the volume of water is increased by the heavy rains, and the melting of the snows within the Rocky Mountains, the current is proportionably accelerated, and becomes more equable, running for many miles in succession, not less than seven hundred and twenty feet per minute. At the time of our ascent the summer floods had not entirely subsided, and in contending against the current, we found occasion { 134} in a few instances to make use of the towing rope.