Lewis: up Marias River / Clark: down Yellowstone — Patrick Gass: July 19, 1806

of the men are employed in dressing skins, as we have got all
ready for crossing the portage as soon as the canoes arrive.
The musquitoes were very troublesome to day. At 3 o’clock
in the afternoon a sergeant and nine men arrived at our camp
262 GASS’S JOURNAL OF THE
with the canoes and some baggage. They informed me that
they had a good passage over the mountains to the Missouri;
and on their way saw a boiling-hot spring, which in twenty-
five minutes would boil meat put into it quite well and fit for
eating. This spring is on the head waters of Wisdom river.
They had got to the canoe-deposit on the 8th instant and
found every thing safe: the whole party then came down to
the forks at the mouth of Jefferson river; where Capt. Clarke
with ten men and the interpreter left them and went up Gal-
latin’s river in order to cross over to the Jaune or Yellow-
stone river. They had plenty of provisions all the way. In
the evening they hauled the canoes out to dry.