The tail, and two other rows of circular
spots of the same color on the sides along the edge of the scuta;
there are one hundred and seventy-six scuta on the belly, and seventeen
on the tail."
Two days later, the journal records that one of the party
killed a grizzly bear, "which, though shot through the heart,
ran at his usual pace nearly a quarter of a mile before he fell."
The mouth of the Musselshell River, which was one of the notable
points that marked another stage in the journey, was reached
on the twentieth of May. This stream empties into the Missouri
two thousand two hundred and seventy miles above its mouth,
and is still known by the name given it by its discoverers.
The journal says:
"It is one hundred and ten yards wide, and contains more water
than streams of that size usually do in this country; its current
is by no means rapid, and there is every appearance of its being
susceptible of navigation by canoes for a considerable distance.
Its bed is chiefly formed of coarse sand and gravel, with an
occasional mixture of black mud; the banks are abrupt and nearly
twelve feet high, so that they are secure from being overflowed;
the water is of a greenish-yellow cast, and much more transparent
than that of the Missouri, which itself, though clearer than below,
still retains its whitish hue and a portion of its sediment.
Opposite the point of junction the current of the Missouri is gentle,
and two hundred and twenty-two yards in width; the bed is principally
of mud, the little sand remaining being wholly confined to the points,
and the water is still too deep to use the setting-pole.
