Missouri River near Marias River approach — Patrick Gass: June 2, 1805

hills come close on the river, but are not so high nor so
broken, as we found them a short distance lower down. This
forenoon we passed two creeks, one on each side, and several
islands covered with cotton wood; but there is not a stick of
timber to be seen any where upon the hills. Some of the
hunters killed a brown bear in a small bottom on the south
side, and having come 18 miles we encamped just above the
bottom on the same side, at the mouth of a large river.