Missouri River Corps of Rediscovery: Creatures of the Mud

"We came too this evening in the mouth of a little river, which falls in on the Stard. side. This stream is about 50 yards wide from bank to bank; the water occupyes about 15 yards. the banks are of earth only, abrupt, 'tho not high- the bed is of mud principally. Capt Clark, who was up this stream about three miles, informed me that it continued about the same width, that it's current was gentle and it appeared navigable for perogues... This stream my friend Capt. C. named Marthas river."

-Meriwether Lewis, April 29, 1805

Mud. It defines our existence as the boundary between water and la...