hostility at these quarries, which possess a right of asylum.  Thus we find even among savages certain principles deemed sacred, by which the rigours of their merciless system of warfare are mitigated.  A sense of common danger, where stronger ties are wanting, gives all the binding force of more solemn obligations.  The importance of preserving the known and settled rules of warfare among civilized nations, in all their integrity, becomes strikingly evident; since even savages, with their few precarious wants, cannot exist in a state of peace or war where this faith is once violated.  The wind became southerly, and blew with such violence that we took a reef in our sail:  it also blew the sand from the bars in such quantities, that we could not see the channel at any distance ahead.  At four and a quarter miles, we came to two willow islands, beyond which are several sandbars; and at twelve miles, a spot where the Mahas once had a village, now no longer existing.  We again passed a number of sandbars, and encamped on the south; having come twenty-four and three quarter miles.  The country through which we passed has the same uniform appearance ever since we left the river Platte:  rich low-grounds near the river, succeeded by undulating prairies, with timber near the waters.  Some wolves were seen to-day on the sandbeaches to the south; we also procured an excellent fruit, resembling a red currant, growing on a shrub like the privy, and about the height of a wild plum.

August 22.  About three miles distance, we joined the men who had been sent from the Maha village with our horses, and who brought us two deer.  The bluffs or hills which reach the river at this place, on the south, contain allum, copperas, cobalt which had the appearance of soft isinglass, pyrites, and sandstone, the two first very pure.  Above this bluff comes in a small creek on the south, which we call Rologe creek.  Seven miles above is another cliff, on the same side, of allum rock, of a dark brown colour, containing in its crevices great quantities of cobalt, cemented shells, and red earth.  From this the river bends to the eastward, and approaches the Sioux river within three or four miles.  We sailed the greater part of the day, and made nineteen miles to our camp on the north side.  The sandbars are as usual numerous:  there are also considerable traces of elk; but none are yet seen.  Captain Lewis in proving the quality of some of the substances in the first cliff, was considerably injured by the fumes and taste of the cobalt, and took some strong medicine to relieve him from its effects.  The appearance of these mineral substances enable us to account for disorders of the stomach, with which the party had been affected since they left the river Sioux.  We had been in the habit of dipping up the water of the river inadvertently and making use of it, till, on examination, the sickness was thought to proceed from a scum covering the surface of the water along the southern shore, and which, as we now discovered,