The Missouri rises in the Rocky Mountains between the forty-third and forty-ninth degrees of north latitude.' The springs which give birth to several of its branches, are not a mile away from a large number of springs whose waters flow to the Columbia. I have stood upon snow banks that contribute innumerable torrents to both rivers. One runs west into the Pacific Ocean; and the other, which merits the title of the largest river of North America, by the abundance of its waters and the length of its course, but which was not explored until after the Mississippi and thence came to be considered its tributary, has its mouth twenty
miles above St. Louis. The Missouri takes that name after the junction of three branches, the Jefferson, the Gallatin and the Madison. The place called the Gate of the Mountains is 441 [16o] miles above the highest point of navigation on the Missouri and presents a magnificent and picMiles.
Hence to Niobrara or L'Eau qui Court river.......... 8o 54
Hence to the Grand Tower ...............„„„„„, 40 „„
Hence to White river . . ............................ loo 113
Hence to Medicine river .. .. ..............„„„„, 80 71
Hence to Fort Pierre . ... ...........„„„„„„„, 65 48
From Fort Pierre to Cheyenne river................... 6o 48
Hence to Moreau river ... ..............„„„„„„, 96 71
Hence to Cannonball river .. . ........................ 130 106
Hence to Heart river..... 50 47
....,.„„„„„„„„„,
Hence to Fort Clark (among the Aricaras and Man
dans) . . . . ........................................ 6 5 6o
Hence to Fort Berthold or Grosventres ..........„, 65 52
Hence to White Earth river . . 90 89
......................
Hence to the mouth of the Yellowstone river, three
miles below Fort Union ............................ 150 114
2,322 1,760
The number of bends of the Missouri river, from Bellevue to the mouth of the Yellowstone river, is 256. In the same distance the number of its islands is 42.
9 Red Rock lake, the ultimate source, is about in latitude 48° 30'. The junction of the Three Forks, where the name Missouri first applies, is about 46°.