15th. Mr. Zenoni, of the Fur Company, who departed the twenty-seventh ultimo on a trading expedition, returned and remained with us last night. He and two men had ascended the Elk Horn about twenty-five miles higher than Mr. Swift had been, but were not successful in finding any Indians. And although they saw a few bisons and antelopes, and elks, they were not so fortunate as to kill any game for subsistence, excepting three turkeys; so that they returned in a state of considerable exhaustion, having been for some time on an allowance of a little maize per day. He found that the upper part of the Elk Horn had not frozen during the severe weather, but still remained open. This circumstance seems to indicate the flow of a great quantity of spring water, or water of a medium temperature, in that part of the stream, requiring time to cool in its passage, before it can congeal. 19th. The sand is blown by the violence of the wind from the sand-bars of the river, so as to resemble a dense fog. We have been hitherto very well supplied with fresh meat, from game killed principally by Mr. Peale, who, on one occasion, killed two deer at a single shot and with one ball, but we are now reduced again to salt pork of a very inferior quality. {172} The party, with the exception of myself, continue to enjoy good health. 22d. Messrs. Dougherty and Peale returned from a hunt, having killed twelve bisons out of a herd of several hundreds they met with near Sioux river, and brought us a seasonable supply of meat. They saw several herds of elk, and yesterday they saw swans, geese, and ducks, flying up the river. A dinner and ball were given at Camp Missouri, in honour of the day, to which our party were invited. 24th. Mr. Graham and I endeavoured to ascertain the rapidity of the current of this part of the Missouri, at the present low water. We availed ourselves of a long vacancy in the ice to float a porter bottle, to which the proper specific gravity was given, by partially filling it with water, it was attached to a cord of one hundred and twenty-two feet in length; it floated this distance in six successive experiments in the following several times 1′ 07″--1′ 04″--1′ 07-1/2″--1′ 05″--1′ 07″--1′ 07″, the mean of which is 1′ 06-1/2″ nearly, giving a velocity of 1 mile 441 yards 1-1/2 feet per hour.