Along The Water Are A Number Of Snakes, Some Of A
Uniform Brown Color, Others Black, And A Third Speckled
On the abdomen,
and striped with black and a brownish yellow on the back and sides.
The first, which is
The largest, is about four feet long; the second
is of the kind mentioned yesterday; and the third resembles in size
and appearance the garter-snake of the United States. On examining
the teeth of all these several kinds, we found them free from poison:
they are fond of the water, in which they take shelter on being pursued.
The mosquitoes, gnats, and prickly pear, our three persecutors,
still continue with us, and, joined with the labor of working the canoes,
have fatigued us all excessively."
On Thursday, July 25, Captain Clark, who was in the lead, as usual,
arrived at the famous Three Forks of the Missouri. The stream
flowing in a generally northeastern direction was the true,
or principal Missouri, and was named the Jefferson. The middle
branch was named the Madison, in honor of James Madison,
then Secretary of State, and the fork next to the eastward received
the name of Albert Gallatin, then Secretary of the Treasury;
and by these titles the streams are known to this day.
The explorers had now passed down to their furthest southern limit,
their trail being to the eastward of the modern cities
of Helena and Butte, and separated only by a narrow divide
(then unknown to them) from the sources of some of the streams
that fall into the Pacific Ocean.
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