[166] Nishnabotna is an Indian word signifying "canoe making river." Fifteen years earlier, Lewis and Clark found the divide between the rivers about three hundred yards wide. At that time the mouth of the Nishnabotna was on the line between Atchison and Holt counties, Missouri. Since then its waters have found their way across Grand Pass, and the old channel below that point has been abandoned. In 1804 the main current of the Missouri ran north of L'Isle Chauve (Bald Island), the middle of which lay opposite Grand Pass. The channel now runs south of this island, while the Nishnabotna, reaching the old channel of the Missouri at the middle of the island, follows it to the confluence of the island's foot. This was the condition in 1879 (see _Map of the Missouri River_, from the government survey, plates xx and xxi), but the channels are constantly shifting.--ED. [167] Lewis and Clark applied the name "Bald Hills" to "the ridge of naked hills" here described, and "Bald-pated Prairie" to the low lands at their base.--ED. [168] Lewis and Clarke, vol. i. p. 28.--JAMES. _Comment by Ed._ The reference is to Biddle's _History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark to the Sources of the Missouri_, etc. (Philadelphia, 1814). See also Thwaites, _Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_ (New York, 1904). [169] This velocity of current is equalled by that of the Cassiquiare in South America, and probably surpassed by the Oronoko, the average descent of whose bed is thirteen inches to the mile of 950 toises (6 feet 4.376 inches per toise). See Humb. Pers. Nar. vol. v. p. 637, and vol. iv. p. 452. La Condamine and Major Rennel suppose the mean descent of the Amazon and the Ganges, scarce four or five inches to the mile, which is about equal to that of the Mississippi, according to the most satisfactory estimates we have been able to make.--JAMES. [170] Platte River (sometimes called Flatwater and Nebraska, all three names having the same meaning) is the largest tributary of the Missouri. It joins the latter between Sarpy and Cass counties, Nebraska, 640.8 miles from the Mississippi. Its mouth is taken as the line between the "upper" and "lower" Missouri.--ED. [171] Species of apios, the glycine of Lin.--JAMES. [172] See Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume v, note 40.--ED. [173] The Mosquito is on the Iowa side, in Pottawatomie County, its mouth being a few miles below Council Bluffs. For the Oto Indians, Missouri Fur Company, and Manuel Lisa, see Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume v, notes 42, 149, 64 respectively. Lisa established the post named for him, in 1812, and for a decade it was the most important trading station on the Missouri. It stood about twenty miles above the present town of Council Bluffs (Iowa), on the opposite side of the river.--ED. {137} CHAPTER VIII