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From the
extremity of the last wall, in a course N. 32° W. is a distance
of ninety-six yards over the low ground, where the wall recommences
and crosses the plain in a course N. 81° W. for eighteen hundred
and thirty yards to the bank of the Missouri. In this course
its height is about eight feet, till it enters, at the distance
of five hundred and thirty-three yards, a deep circular pond
of seventy-three yards diameter; after which it is gradually
lower, towards the river: it touches the river at a muddy bar,
which bears every mark of being an encroachment of the water,
for a considerable distance; and a little above the junction,
is a small circular redoubt. Along the bank of the river, and
at eleven hundred yards distance, in a straight line from this
wall, is a second, about six feet high, and of considerable
width: it rises abruptly from the bank of the Missouri, at a
point where the river bends, and goes straight forward, forming
an acute angle with the last wall, till it enters the river
again, not far from the mounds just described, towards which
it is obviously tending. At the bend the Missouri is five hundred
yards wide; the ground on the opposite side highlands, or low
hills on the bank; and where the river passes between this fort
and Bonhomme island, all the distance from the bend, it is constantly
washing the banks into the stream, a large sandbank being already
taken from the shore near the wall. During the whole course
of this wall, or glacis, it is covered with trees, among which
are many large cotton trees, two or three feet in diameter.
Immediately opposite the citadel, or the part most strongly
fortified, on Bonhomme island, is a small work in a circular
form, with a wall surrounding it, about six feet in height.
The young willows along the water, joined to the general appearance
of the two shores, induce a belief that the bank of the island
is encroaching, and the Missouri indemnifies itself by washing
away the base of the fortification. The citadel contains about
twenty acres, but the parts between the long walls must embrace
nearly five hundred acres.
These are the first remains of the kind which we have had an
opportunity of examining; but our French interpreters assure
us, that there are great numbers of them on the Platte, the
Kansas, the Jacques, &c. and some of our party say, that they
observed two of those fortresses on the upper side of the Petit
Arc creek, not far from its mouth; that the wall was about six
feet high, and the sides of the angles one hundred yards in
length.
September
3, 1804
September 3. The morning
was cold, and the wind from the northwest. We passed at sunrise,
three large sandbars, and at the distance of ten miles reached
a small creek, about twelve yards wide, coming in from the north,
above a white bluff: this creek has obtained the name of Plum
creek, from the number of that fruit which are in the neighborhood,
and of a delightful quality. Five miles further, we encamped
on the south near the edge of a plain; the river is wide, and
covered with sandbars to-day: the banks are high and of a whitish
color; the timber scarce, but an abundance of grapes. Beaver
houses too have been observed in great numbers on the river,
but none of the animals themselves.
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