"If This Be, As We Suppose, The Musselshell, Our Indian Information
Is That It Rises In The First Chain Of
The Rocky mountains not far
from the sources of the Yellowstone, whence in its course to this
place it waters
A high broken country, well timbered, particularly on
its borders, and interspersed with handsome fertile plains and meadows.
We have reason, however, to believe, from their giving a similar
account of the timber where we now are, that the timber of which they
speak is similar to that which we have seen for a few days past,
which consists of nothing more than a few straggling small pines and dwarf
cedars on the summits of the hills, nine-tenths of the ground being
totally destitute of wood, and covered with short grass, aromatic herbs,
and an immense quantity of prickly-pear; though the party who explored
it for eight miles represented the low grounds on the river to be well
supplied with cottonwood of a tolerable size, and of an excellent soil.
They also report that the country is broken and irregular, like that
near our camp; and that about five miles up, a handsome river,
about fifty yards wide, which we named after Chaboneau's wife,
Sacajawea's or the Bird-woman's River, discharges into the Musselshell
on the north or upper side."
Later explorations have shown that the Musselshell rises
in the Little Belt Mountains, considerably to the north of
the sources of the Yellowstone. Modern geography has also taken
from the good Sacajawea the honor of having her name bestowed
on one of the branches of the Musselshell.
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