On the 19th, Mr. Immel,[203] of the Missouri Fur Company, returned from an expedition to the Sioux. During his stay in the vicinity of the pseudo volcanoes, which occur on the banks of the Missouri, a tremendous subterranean explosion occurred, which much alarmed the Indians as well as the whites; the concussion was succeeded by a large volume of dense smoke from the aperture of the volcano, by the sinking in of a portion of the hill in the rear, and by the cracking of the ice in the river. Messrs. Peale, Swift, and Dougherty departed in a periogue yesterday, on their way to the Bowyer Creek to hunt. An igneous meteor, or jack-o'-lantern, was seen on the evening of the 20th, near our cantonment; it was described to me as of the size of a double fist, {177} with a caudate appendage, or tail, of the length of about two feet; it emitted a light of the colour of the flame of burning sulphur; it passed along the river shore nearly over the observer's head, at but a very small elevation, nearly in a right line, with an equable motion, about as rapid as the flight of a bird, and with an audible sound like the blowing of a moderate stream of air through a thicket; it was visible about one half a minute, when it crossed the river, became paler, and disappeared. The waters of the Missouri have been as clear during the winter as ordinary rivers; the earthy matter, which they hold in suspension during the temperate and warm weather, and which every person who views the river remarks as characteristic of its waters, subsides as soon as the wintry temperature occurs, but is again renewed in the spring. They have been gradually more and more turbid, these two or three days past. The ice in the river broke up on the 29th ult., and entirely disappeared on the 19th instant. Great flights of geese, swans, ducks, brant, and cranes have been passing up the river, at their usual migrating altitude above the surface of the earth; but this migration of these aquatic birds has nearly ceased. April 5th. A war-party of Omawhaws arrived at the trading house of the Missouri Fur Company. They are one of three parties, which have been for ten days past in pursuit of a war-party of thirteen Sauks who carried off a number of horses from near the Omawhaw village. They pursued the trail of the Sauks, until they lost it nearly opposite to this place; they, nevertheless, continued the pursuit in the direction which they supposed the enemy had taken, but are now returning unsuccessful; they say they are in hopes, that one of the other parties may overtake them. It seems probable, that it was this same {178} party of Sauks who fired upon a soldier on the 30th ult.