sement

I return'd on board. it continued to rain moderately untill about 12 oClock when it ceased, & Continued Cloudy. the Stone on the edge of the river continue to form verry Considerable rapids, which are troublesom & dificuelt to pass, our toe rope which we are obliged to make use of altogether broke & we were in Some danger of turning over in the perogue in which I was, we landed at 12 and refreshed the men with a dram, our men are obliged to under go great labour and fatigue in assending this part of the Missouri, as they are compelled from the rapidity of the Current in many places to walk in the water & on Slippery hill Sides or the Sides of rocks, on Gravel & thro a Stiff mud bear footed, as they Cannot keep on Mockersons from the Stiffness of the mud & decline of the Slipy. hills Sides- the Hills and river Clifts of this day exhibit a most romantick appearance on each Side of the river is a white Soft Sand Stone bluff which rises to about half the hight of the hills, on the top of this Clift is a black earth on points, in maney places this Sand Stone appears like antient ruins some like elegant buildings at a distance, Some like Towers &c. &c. in maney places of this days march we observe on either Side of the river extraodanary walls of a black Semented Stone which appear to be regularly placed one Stone on the other, Some of those walls run to the hite of 100 feet, they are from about 1 foot to 12 feet thick and are perpendicular, those walls Commence at the waters edge & in Some places meet at right angles- those walls appear to Continue their Course into the Sand Clifts, the Stones which form those walls are of different Sizes all Squar edged, Great numbers has fallen off from the walls near the river which cause the walls to be of uneaquil hite, in the evening the Countrey becomes lower and the bottoms wider, no timber on the uplands, except a few Cedar & pine on the Clifts a few Scattering Cotton trees on the points in the river bottoms, The apparance of Coal Continus Capt Lewis walked on Shore & observed a Species of Pine we had never before Seen, with a Shorter leaf than Common & the bur different, he also Collected Some of the Stone off one of the walls which appears to be a Sement of Isin glass black earth we Camped on the Stard Side in a Small timbered bottom above the mouth of a Creek on the Stard Side our hunters killed, 2 animals with big horns, 2 Buffalow & an Elk, we Saw Great numbers of those big horned animals on the Clifts, but fiew Buffalow or Elk, no antelope, a fiew mule deer, Saw a fox to day.

William Clark - The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806