Jefferson/Beaverhead River near present-day Dillon — Joseph Whitehouse: August 9, 1805

a clear cool morning. Several hunters out on Shore we
Set out as usal and proceeded on the wind high from the
S. E. took on board a goat which one of the hunters had
killed. we halted ab! 8 oC. for breakfast. George Shannon
joined us who had been lost 3 days. he had killed 3 buck
Deer, which was fat. he brought in the Skins & a little meat.
Cap! Lewis G. Drewyer H. M® Neal & John Shields Set out
to go on by land a long distance to look out the way for us to
go & expect to find the Snake nation of Indians. we pro-
ceeded on. took on bord a deer which one of the hunters
killed. we Saw no game worth notice except a fiew Deer.
the River and Smooth prarie the Same as yesterday. back
at the forks our Captains named this Stream Jeffersons River,
the N. fork Sensable River, and the South fork’ not known
yet. So I expect that ought to be called the head of the
1 This sentence was crossed through thus far, in the original MS., with a stroke of
the pen. It has been allowed to stand, to make intelligible what follows, — Ep.
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1805] WHITEHOUSE’S JOURNAL
Missourie although we are yet on the head branch, which we
expect to See the head of it Soon. Some Thunder. the
Musquetoes troublesome. the beaver pleanty as usal &c.
Saw Snow on the Mountains Some distance a head. pro-
ceeded on passed the old bed of the River where it formerly
ran along the high land at South Side of the prarie Some
cotton trees along it. the prarie low, Some part of which is
soft & boggy which we expect is good turf to burn [if it] was
dug & dryed. Thunder Showers passed round or over.
Came 18 miles and Camped on L. S. near a grove of cotton
trees & willows.