It was after dark before we finished butchering the buffaloe, and on my return to camp I trod within a few inches of a rattle snake but . . . fortunately escaped his bite . . . late this evening we passed another creek . . . and a very bad rappid which reached quite across the river . . . a female Elk and its fawn swam down through the waves which ran very high, hence the name of Elk Rappides which (we) instantly gave this place . . . opposite to these rappids there is a high bluff and a little above on the lard (larboard) a small cottonwood bottom in which we found sufficient timber for our
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