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 into ravines, and is stripped of its soil, presenting nothing but bare heaps of earth or clay. Many of these clay hills are completely detached from the upland, and washed by heavy rains into a variety of curious and fantastic shapes, generally of whitish color, though intermixed with strata of various hues. The ledge of limestone, upon which the earth or clay reposes, shews itself in many places, but mouldering and crumbling, from the action of the frosts and rain. This limestone constitutes at least one half in the washings which are carried to the Missouri; and similar appearances, are to be met with on all its tributary streams, from this upwards, as well as on many below. Some of these clay hills, at the first glance, look like towers or circular buildings, with domes and cupolas; and what contributes to this, the top of some of them are covered with a beautiful creeping vine, or evergreen, of a species, which Mr. Bradbury {182} informs me, is described by Mishaux as growing on the lakes.[50] A short distance below the fort, the primitive ground, or upland, is washed into a steep precipice by the river; here we examined a strata of coal, of a good quality, and about eighteen inches in thickness. Lisa informed me, that on his first voyage up the Missouri, he observed smoke issuing from a fissure of this bluff, and that on putting down a stick, fire was communicated. On the most attentive examination we could discover nothing of this. Amongst other objects which attracted our attention, we observed quantities of petrified wood lying about on the surface of the clay hills. I traced a whole tree, the stump still remaining about three feet high, and not less than four in diameter. The bark was in general decayed, but we could easily find the position of the trunk and of its branches, as it had fallen. This fact seemed to me the