One of the
party, Private Joseph Fields, was the first white man who ever ascended
the Yellowstone for any considerable distance. Sent up the river by
Captains Lewis and Clark, he travelled about eight miles, and observed
the currents and sand-bars. Leaving the mouth of the river, the party
went on their course along the Missouri. The journal, under date of
April 27, says:--
"From the point of junction a wood occupies the space between the two
rivers, which at the distance of a mile come within two hundred and
fifty yards of each other. There a beautiful low plain commences,
widening as the rivers recede, and extends along each of them for
several miles, rising about half a mile from the Missouri into a plain
twelve feet higher than itself. The low plain is a few inches above high
water mark, and where it joins the higher plain there is a channel of
sixty or seventy yards in width, through which a part of the Missouri,
when at its greatest height, passes into the Yellowstone. . . .
"The northwest wind rose so high at eleven o'clock that we were obliged
to stop till about four in the afternoon, when we proceeded till dusk.
On the south a beautiful plain separates the two rivers, till at about
six miles there is a piece of low timbered ground, and a little above it
bluffs, where the country rises gradually from the river: the situations
on the north are more high and open. We encamped on that side, the
wind, the sand which it raised, and the rapidity of the current having
prevented our advancing more than eight miles; during the latter part of
the day the river became wider, and crowded with sand-bars.
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