The river, bending to the north and then making many eccentric curves, finally empties into Lake Winnipeg, and so passes into the great chain of northern lakes in British America.
At this point the explorers saw great flocks of the wild Canada goose.
The journal says:-- "These geese, we observe, do not build their nests on the ground or in the sand-bars, but in the tops of the lofty cottonwood trees.

We saw some elk and buffalo to-day, but at too great a distance to obtain any of them, though a number of the carcasses of the latter animal are strewed along the shore, having fallen through the ice and been swept along when the river broke up.

More bald eagles are seen on this part of the Missouri than we have previously met with; the small sparrow-hawk, common in most parts of the United States, is also found here.

Great quantities of geese are feeding on the prairies, and one flock of white brant, or geese with black-tipped wings, and some gray brant with them, pass up the river; from their flight they seem to proceed much further to the northwest.

We killed two antelopes, which were very lean, and caught last night two beavers." Lewis and Clark were laughed at by some very knowing people who scouted the idea that wild geese build their nests in trees.