Cross Bois des Sioux River; seventy feet wide, four to seven
feet deep; muddy bottom; steep and miry banks; goods boated over;
wagons hauled through, light, with ropes; bad crossing, but passable;
smooth flat prairie, as on the east side of Bois des Sioux,
occasionally interrupted with open sloughs to Wild Rice River, and
camp with wood, water, and abundant grass.
"June 30. Wild Rice River, about forty feet wide and five and a half
feet deep, with muddy and miry bottom and sides, flowing in a
canal-like channel, some twenty feet below prairie level; river
skirted with elm bridged from the steep banks, being too miry to
sustain the animals, detaining the train but little more than
half-a-day; small brook without wood, flowing in a broad channel cut
out through the prairie; crossing miry, but made passable for the
wagon by strewing the bottom with mown grass.
"Firm prairie to camp on edge of above small stream; good grass and
water; no wood; elk killed by hunter.
"July 1. Smooth prairie extending to Shayenne River; sand knolls,
ponds, and marshes frequent as the river is approached. The marshes
were not miry firmer bottom; good wagon road; night encampment on
bank of river; sufficient grass for train; wood abundant; river water
good; many catfish caught in river.
"July 2. Shayenne River, sixty feet wide, fourteen feet deep; river
had been previously bridged by Red River train, from the poplars and
other trees growing on the river, and this bridge we made use of in
crossing our wagons; camp on the west bank of the river; water, wood,
and grass good.
"July 4. Prairie undulation, interrupted with marshes, small ponds and
occasional small rivulets, to Maple River, about twenty-five feet
wide, three and a half feet deep, firm bottom, and easily passed by
the wagons; river tolerably well wooded, and the camp on its edge is
furnished with water, wood, and good grass. The rich black soil of the
valley of this stream is noticeable.
"July 5. To a small stream thirty feet wide, two feet deep, clayey
bottom, easily crossed by the wagons; prairie high, firm, and almost
level for some thirteen miles, becoming more rolling and with small
ponds in the last seven miles of the march; on the edge of some of the
ponds are salt incrustations; camp on the river; water good; grass
good; no wood, and the bois de vache is used for fuel.
"July 6. Country wet and marshy; not a tree in sight; prairie with low
ridges and knolls, and great number of ponds and marshes; night's camp
by a small pond; no wood, but plenty of bois de vache; grass good.
"July 7. Approaching the Shayenne; country as yesterday for some half
dozen miles; bordering on the river the ground is broken with deep
coulees and ravines, and to keep away from them the train kept at some
distance from the river, encamping by a small marshy pond; no wood;
plenty of bois de vache; grass good; water tolerable; first buffalo
killed to-day.
