On the first of August we find this entry in the journal of the party:-- "The buffalo now appear in vast numbers.

A herd happened to be on their way across the river.

Such was the multitude of these animals that, though the river, including an island over which they passed, was a mile wide, the herd stretched, as thickly as they could swim, from one side to the other, and the party was obliged to stop for an hour.

They consoled themselves for the delay by killing four of the herd; and then having proceeded for the distance of forty-five miles (in all to-day) to an island, below which two other herds of buffalo, as numerous as the first, soon after crossed the river." Again, on the very next day, we find this entry:-- "The river was now about a mile wide, less rapid, and more divided by islands, and bars of sand and mud, than heretofore; the low grounds, too, were more extensive, and contained a greater quantity of cottonwood, ash, and willows.

On the northwest was a low, level plain, and on the southeast some rugged hills, on which we saw, without being able to approach them, some bighorns.