Wednesday, July 18.  The morning was fair, and a gentle wind from southeast by south, carried us along between the prairie on the north, and Bald island to the south:  opposite the middle of which, the Nishnahbatona approaches the nearest to the Missouri.  The current here ran fifty fathoms in 41”.  At thirteen and a half miles, we reached an island on the north, near to which the banks overflow; while on the south, the hills project over the river and form high cliffs.  At one point a part of the cliff, nearly three quarters of a mile in length, and about two hundred feet in height, has fallen into the river.  It is composed chiefly of sandstone intermixed with an iron ore of bad quality; near the bottom is a soft slatestone with pebbles.  We passed several bad sandbars in the course of the day, and made eighteen miles, and encamped on the south, opposite to the lower point of the Oven islands.  The country around is generally divided into prairies, with little timber, except on low points, islands, and near creeks, and that consisting of cottonwood, mulberry, elm, and sycamore.  The river falls fast.  An Indian dog came to the bank; he appeared to have been lost and was nearly starved:  we gave him some food, but he would not follow us.

Thursday, July 19.  The Oven islands are small, and two in number; one near the south shore, the other in the middle of the river.  Opposite to them is the prairie, called Terrien’s Oven, from a trader of that name.  At four and a half miles, we reached some high cliffs of a yellow earth, on the south, near which are two beautiful runs of water, rising in the adjacent prairies, and one of them with a deerlick, about two hundred yards from its mouth.  In this neighbourhood we observed some iron ore in the bank.  At two and a half miles above the runs, a large portion of the hill, for nearly three quarters of a mile, has fallen into the river.  We encamped on the western extremity of an island, in the middle of the river, having made ten and three quarter miles.  The river falls a little.  The sandbars which we passed to-day, are more numerous, and the rolling sands more frequent and dangerous, than any we have seen; these obstacles increasing as we approach the river Platte.  The Missouri here is wider also than below, where the timber on the banks resists the current; while here the prairies which approach, are more easily washed and undermined.  The hunters have brought for the last few days, no quadruped, but deer:  great quantities of young geese are seen to-day:  one of them brought calamus, which he had gathered opposite our encampment, and a large quantity of sweet-flag.