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"At noon the two canoes were finished.

They were twenty-eight feet long, sixteen or eighteen inches deep, and from sixteen to twenty-four inches wide; and, having lashed them together, everything was ready for setting out the next day, Gibson having now recovered.

Sergeant Pryor was directed, with Shannon and Windsor, to take the remaining horses to the Mandans, and if he should find that Mr.Henry (a trading-post agent) was on the Assiniboin River, to go thither and deliver him a letter, the object of which was to prevail on the most distinguished chiefs of the Sioux to accompany him to Washington." On a large island near the mouth of a creek now known as Canyon Creek, the party landed to explore an extensive Indian lodge which seems to have been built for councils, rather than for a place of residence.