Frenchmen proceeded down the stream in search of a greater river of which they had heard.
After seven days of floating and paddling, they came into this great river and began to descend. They saw, indeed, a magnificent stream, its great volume in some places flowing in one broad channel, at other places dividing and running' among islands covered to the water's edge with willow and birch. The valley they saw flanked with high bluffs, in places rising in smooth, green ramparts, crowned with oak groves, in other places perpendicular limestone cliffs. Descending a hundred miles, the valley broadened out and the great bluffs sunk into low, rounded hills. The water rippled clear in the sunshine on the sandy banks, sprinkled with many-hued pebbles, for here the great river had not been polluted by the turbid tide of the Mizouri.
They had been told by the Indians that white men were settled on the banks of the great river, but they concluded that in their imperfect knowledge of the language they had misunderstood; they were sure the region had never been seen by any Europeans except themselves. Great, then, was their surprise when,
