It is loud, and resembles precisely the sound of a six-pound piece of ordnance at the distance of three miles.

The Minnetarees frequently mentioned this noise, like thunder, which they said the mountains made; but we had paid no attention to it, believing it to have been some superstition, or perhaps a falsehood.

The watermen also of the party say that the Pawnees and Ricaras give the same account of a noise heard in the Black Mountains to the westward of them.

The solution of the mystery given by the philosophy of the watermen is, that it is occasioned by the bursting of the rich mines of silver confined within the bosom of the mountains." Of these strange noises there are many explanations, the most plausible being that they are caused by the explosion of the species of stone known as the geode, fragments of which are frequently found among the mountains.

The geode has a hollow cell within, lined with beautiful crystals of many colors.
Independence Day, 1805, was celebrated with becoming patriotism and cheerfulness by these far-wandering adventurers.